Name to Forget, Face to Remember
by Kamikazi Fox
Summary: One with what appeared to be an officer (thanks to the uniform he wore) came up to him, pistol in hand, and pointed it at him. *"No….. this… this isn't right… why…."* "Du stirbst hier, du Yankee Bastard" "Go to hell…" BANG! The sound of a gun going off was the last thing he heard before the world went black.
1. Chapter I: And so it Begins

_**Name to Forget, Face to Remember**_

 _ **Chapter I: And so it Begins…**_

 _What happens to be the end may really be a new beginning._

The mortars were coming down hard on their position and the men were panicking. Sam was just recovering from the last shell that hit a bit too close for comfort. Though he didn't like the feeling of having the wind knocked out of him he was used to it by this point. He groaned and looked around at the hell he now called his life.

The battlefield was in chaos. Soldiers were running around screaming and trying to survive the onslaught of German fire. Most were fighting back but the ones that weren't so lucky were laying everywhere, bleeding out (if they weren't already dead) and crying for their mothers or wives. There were puddles of blood everywhere and a large number of human limbs lying every which way.

It was a view that, Sam thought, that was good enough to be immortalized in one of those battle paintings that hung in famous museums. He wondered if he would be lucky enough to be part of the scene he was so lucky to have been able to partake in.

 _"Probably not..."_ He thought.

Another explosion near him brought him back to reality. He stood, and a bullet struck his helmet and bounced off. He panicked and hit the dirt; luckily, he was unharmed. He started to look for some cover. There was a fallen tree about twenty feet in front of him, so he crawled to it and hid behind it.

He checked his situation again: there was a barn to the south of his position, and the enemy was directly in front of him making a push on his position. Next to him was a dead soldier. He got an idea. He grabbed the dead man's weapon (a trusty old Chicago typewriter, he would have found that fact funny if he wasn't terrified) and put his helmet on the end of the barrel and held it up above the tree, waving it frantically from behind his cover.

"MEDIC! MEDIC! I'M A MEDIC!"

A barrage of bullets rained down on his helmet and he had to duck even lower to avoid what he could have sworn was pure hate coming at him. His helmet had the symbol and everything.

" _This is_ _ **not**_ _how you fight a war!"_

He decided to fuck it and put his helmet back on and pulled the Thompson over the tree and blind fired towards the enemy. After the clip went dry he dropped the gun and peeked over the top of his cover. He was surprised to see that he actually nailed a few of them about fifty feet away. The rest of them were hiding behind whatever cover they could find. He pulled his head back down and looked behind him to see that his allies were retreating.

"Medic! I need a medic over here!" Sam heard someone shout behind him.

He looked to the barn and saw a soldier waving frantically at him from behind the building.

"Give me some covering fire!" Sam yelled back.

He stood up and booked it to the barn (almost being turned to mincemeat twice by stray fire). Thankfully he made it to the soldier in one piece.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"My buddy got shot! In the lung I think."

Sam looked behind the man to see another soldier sitting on the ground with his back against the wall. Also, true to the man's word, the wounded soldier started coughing up blood. Sam pushed the one aside and went to work on the man. He had been hit dead center in the right breast so he needed to act fast. Sam went into his bag and pulled out a hollow needle about two inches long, laid the man on his right side, and jammed the needle into his chest about half an inch above the wound.

He went back into his med pouch and pulled out some medical tape and a thick cotton patch. He lifted up the shirt and applied the patch while taping the sides to seal the he was finished he went to his kit and pulled off a med tag to list the wound and treatment he gave. Sam gave it to the other soldier.

" _It's messy… but he'll live… hopefully."_ He thought.

"Can you get him back to friendly territory?" Sam asked.

"I-I think so?"

" _Oh this is_ _ **not**_ _the time for doubt!_ Well, you'd better, because he's going to die unless you get him out of here!"

The soldier nodded and picked up his friend in a fireman's carry.

"Thank you!" he told Sam and ran.

Meanwhile Sam contemplated how he handled that situation. He was a little harsh on the poor guy but he wasn't feeling loveable at the moment. He peeked around the corner and was almost killed again. This was getting old. Just then an ungodly sound assaulted his ears. He did a one-eighty and saw that a Panzer had rushed his position.

The metal beast trained its gun on the one lone Yank there. Curly black hair, dark blue eyes, thin build, and currently praying to whatever god that was out there to save his sorry ass. Unfortunately for him God had other ideas. The tank fired and Sam had just enough time beforehand to duck and run towards and behind the Panzer as it's shot obliterated the wall behind him.

He took off like a jackrabbit on steroids behind the tank but was rained upon by German fire. Pain was the only thing could feel as he clutched his side and fell to his knees. He tried to get back up but heard a sharp "crack" and felt even more pain erupted from the back of his head. Those kraut bastards had surrounded him and one of them had taken the butt of his rifle to the back of Sam's head. He couldn't understand a lick of what they said but the laughter didn't make it seem complementary, whatever it was.

One with what appeared to be an officer (thanks to the uniform he wore) came up to him, pistol in hand, and pointed it at him.

" _No….. this… this isn't right… why…."_

"Du stirbst hier, du Yankee Bastard"

"Go to hell…"

 **BANG!**

The sound of a gun going off was the last thing he heard before the world went black.

* * *

Sam never had an easy life, nor did he want one, or ask for one. Unlike many he actually enjoyed hardship. And luckily for him he got plenty of it. The first incident to shape him into who he was now happened before he was even born. He never knew his father, nor had his mother ever really talked about him much. He had been raised in poverty by his mother his whole life. But they both had been content because they always told each other that they had one another. But living in the slums of Chicago all your life isn't the best way to live.

The second hardship was just living in general. With barely any money to their name they would often find themselves sleeping in shelters or alleyways. Though again, they had each other so it was never too miserable for them. He loved his mother to death and would do anything to put a smile on her face. She was his guardian angel.

The third and most painful hardship was the fact that ever since he was little he was almost obsessed with the practice of medicine. He had always dreamed of being a doctor but with no money… he would never have been able to get an education, let alone pay off any debts. That led to the biggest mistake he probably ever made. He joined the military.

He could still remember his mother's voice. Still remember seeing the tears in her eyes as she wept into his chest the day he had to leave for basic. Sam could still remember the promise he made to her.

" _Now you come back! Please Sammy, don't play the hero! I can't lose you, you're the only thing i have left!"_

He knew, even then, that he probably couldn't keep that promise. that's why he hated making them… But just for the sake of calming her down…

" _I… I promise I'll come back ma…"_

He hugged her one last time. Like it was the last time he would ever hug her again. She was beautiful. Long curly black hair, dark blue eyes, thin body… if Sam had been born a woman he would have looked just like her.

" _I promise I'll come back... I promise…"_

"MOM!"

He sat bolt upright and was immediately blinded by a bright light that seemed to be everywhere. His head ached and his senses seemed to be in overdrive. Even the tiniest of smells assaulted his nose and though the birds' tunes were pleasant in melody they seemed to be screeching right into his ear. His hands rested on where his ears were supposed to be to cover them but felt nothing but his hair. He was beyond confused now as he dragged his hands further up his head and felt odd protrusions that twitched when he first touched them. The weirdest thing was the fact that he could feel them twitch. On his head, not as he felt them with his fingers or through his scalp but like they had feeling of their own and were somehow part of his body!

He held them down with his hands and it helped with the noise a bit as it was starting to make his headache worse. His vision was still blurry so he took his hands off of what had to have been his ears and rubbed his eyes. His hands felt odd as well but he had bigger problems. He knew he was dead but where was he now? And why were his ears all messed up and…

" _...Why do I have a snout?!"_

His face had elongated into a muzzle. He took his hands and prodded his new nose and noticed that he was missing a digit on both of his hands. Not only that but he was now covered in fur. He was officially freaking out now. He had started to hyperventilate as he stared at his… "paws" in horror. He tried to stand but lost balance and fell on his rear.

" _OWW!... Whaaa?"_

He looked behind him and found that, to his dismay, something else had changed as well.

" _Yep… I have a tail…"_

He must be going insane! Sam rolled over on his hands and knees and vomited.

" _This can't be happening! I'm not an animal!"_

He continued to retch for a minute or so and looked around frantically for something familiar. He spotted a small stream to his right about thirty feet away and tried to walk on two feet towards it. When he fell for the third time he tried to walk to it on all fours (which annoyed him because it worked better than walking). He looked at his reflection in a small pool in both shock and horror. He had turned into a gray wolf. His fur was the color of ash with the tips of both his ears and tail midnight black.

He brought his hands to his face, (he had decided that he wasn't going to call them "paws" just yet), and started to really panic. He felt his muzzle and pulled on his ears a little. He stroked his fur and whiskers. His tail was in between his legs and he felt like throwing up again.

" _T-this can't be happening!_... _T-this isn't… happening! No….. no no no… No no no no no no I'm not an animal! I'm not an animal…. I'm_ _ **not**_ _!"_

He sat and curled up into a fetal position with his head in between his legs. He tried to remember the last thing that happened to him before this whole mess.

" _Okay so… France! I was fighting on the front and…. I died...,.. No….. No no no no no no no no no no!"_

He began to sob. He was dead, that much was certain.

" _... Ma…"_

As Sam sat there crying the wind picked up slightly and he caught a new scent. He could smell something cooking… from the smell of it he would have had to guess that it was vegetables on a barbecue. He sniffed and wiped his eyes.

" _She… She would want me to come home."_

He shook his head and continued.

" _I'm coming home…"_

He tried to stand again and failed again.

" _Well… Just a setback! I'm coming._ "

Sam got on all fours and walked towards the smell of food and hopefully towards civilization.

" _I'm coming, Mom."_

* * *

 **Ugh... Hey everyone... If this story looks familiar that's because I tried to post this a couple months ago. (stupid roommates... thinking it's okay to fuck with me by hacking into my stuff...) So yeah! nothing much to say cept "Here you go!"... Anyway, reviews are very much appreciated and every notice i get the someone is now following this story or just added it to their favorites list it is a big moral boost! so thank you in advance and have a wonderful day!**

 _ **German translation from PapiRichtofen_ Beta read by Tremainj**_

 ** _Fox signing off_**


	2. Chapter II: Down the Rabbit Hole

_**Chapter II: Down the Rabbit Hole**_

 _Just because the path is different does not mean that you are lost_

* * *

" _Oh fuck this!"_

Sam had been walking for about half an hour through the woods before he became fed up from walking on all four of his… He had decided to keep calling them "hands" because he didn't want to consider himself an animal just yet, and that was also the reason why he wanted to try walking now.

" _Alright… Just like riding a bike… Right?"_

 **Thud.**

He groaned in pain and rubbed his rear. He felt the base of his new-found tail and sighed.

" _This is just… Wait..."_

He had an idea. He got back up, this time trying to use his tail for balance. He extended it out straight behind him and slowly raised himself up. He was a bit shaky at first, but at least he was standing now. To Sam's dismay though, his tail had started to wag; it threw his balance off just a bit but at least he didn't fall again.

He calmed himself and tried walking. Again, he used his new limb for balance. He didn't fall and slowly got better at walking. After a few minutes, he broke into a jog, and then a full on sprint. To Sam this was a welcome change. After about ten minutes of non stop running he finally slowed down and stopped to catch his breath. He was amazed by how much stamina he now had and was feeling better,considering how he felt earlier.

He continued on and tried to rationalize his situation more logically then before. He observed his surroundings. The trees seemed to be mostly some type of evergreen with a few oaks and birch trees scattered everywhere. The spacing in between each was enough to let him stretch comfortably without touching one of them on either side. The canopy was wasn't too thick and rays of afternoon sunlight were breaking through to the short grass below. Sam had come to the conclusion that he wasn't in France anymore.

He started to get a pit in his stomach again but pushed down his fear and continued walking. He figured it was pointless to find out where he was at the moment. So he turned his mind to the more prominent problem at the moment. The fact that he was a wolf made absolutely no sense. He had stopped freaking out about it by that point but it still baffled him. He had, at first, thought that he was in heaven but now was not so sure even though he could clearly remember dying. And there was no way he was in hell. This all tied back into the first question which really annoyed him. "Where was he?"

He couldn't answer any of the questions he had at the moment so he prayed that everything would make sense when he reached his destination which from the way the smell was getting stronger, he couldn't be more than another half hour's walk away. Which was a good thing to because he was starting to get hungry.

" _Can wolves even eat vegetables? Oh well, guess i'll cross that bridge when i get to it."_

He had come to a road not ten minutes later. The smell was getting even stronger so he considered what to do. If a human were to spot him, he thought, they would either try to kill him or run away to find someone that would. And he didn't think the fact that he was walking on two legs would matter much. So Sam concluded that he was still in enemy territory so walking on a road wouldn't be such a good idea as he had experience with ambushes.

So he went for the safer option and followed the road from the tree line. Not that he really cared either way as the land was quite easy to traverse. He walked on and continued to think to himself.

" _Okay so there are humans here… oh of course there are humans here or else i wouldn't be following the smell of cooked food… Oh shit, what am i gonna do when i get there? Okay what am i gonna tell 'em? 'Hi, i'm a dead soldier who's looking for food and a place to stay!'... No they'll think i'm crazy… Wait, wolf… oops."_

This was getting him nowhere real fast. He decided to just play it by ear when he got there as he couldn't think of a better plan then that. The trees were starting to become more spread out and the land had been slowly rising in height for the past couple of minutes. He came up to a sign. "Welcome to Bunnyburrow!"

" _... Huh….. Well, at least they speak English?"_

It was a strange name for a town but when he looked down from the hill he stood upon he noticed that the name wasn't the only strange thing about this place. The architecture was unlike anything that he had ever seen before. Though it looked like it was farmland for miles, there was a small town with what looked like a train station to the north of it. There was shops in the west end and what looked like houses to the east. At least he _thought_ they were houses. Though they looked nothing like anything he had ever seen before. The only indication that they were dwellings at all was because he could see a large gathering around of… "Creatures" around them.

" _Are those people? Something's wrong here."_

He shook his head and continued

* * *

" _Rabbits… They're all… Rabbits…"_

He stared at the spectacle before him in awe from the cover of the forest treeline. There were rabbits, hundreds of them, having what appeared to be a cookout. There were so many of them that he was getting dizzy just looking at 'em. He couldn't fathom why there were walking, talking rabbits acting like humans… He noticed that they were all wearing clothing as well. Not like Mickey Mouse would either, they were wearing full outfits. He looked down at himself and just now considered the fact that he was naked.

That wasn't a problem before as A: he had been alone the entire journey here and B: he had fur. And he was a wolf… The most threatening predatory animal to their kind. So unless they were like him then he didn't know how they would react to his presence. Though if they _were_ like him…

He shook that thought out of his mind and started to think about his options. The first would have been to turn around and head back the way he came. Though that wouldn't have been a good idea as he still had no idea where he was and had no food, clean water, or shelter. The second option would be to go down there and ask for help, but the problem with that was he had no idea how they would react! So he went with the third option and the last on he could think about at that moment. To wait til dark and practice some resonance while they slept.

He turned around and headed back the way he came. Once he got to the peak of the hill he fashioned a makeshift matrist out of pine needles. The sun had started to set so he figured that if he needed sleep he should get some now. He lied down on his little bed and closed his eyes. He always imagined ink like darkness creeping in as he tried to sleep so he braced himself for the nightmares that were sure to come. He couldn't remember a night in the last year and a half that hadn't been full of them. He couldn't help it so he just adjusted and got used to them. As much as he hated it.

* * *

 _He was standing in a field of golden flowers. There was a large oak tree in front of him so he decided to check it out. He walked over and looked around. Nothing for miles but flowers. Just a blanket of golden flowers and the tree. He looked down at himself and could have sworn he looked different earlier that day. He was wearing his basic medic field outfit without the helmet and medkits. He looked at his hands and was confused because he could have sworn that he remembered losing both his pinky fingers._

 _What made the image even stranger was the fact that there was a tattoo on the back of each of his hands of the Star of David. As far as he could figure he wasn't Jewish so he had no idea what was going on._

" _Pretty, isn't it?"_

 _He turned around to see a little girl standing in front of him. He couldn't describe how she looked though which was strange. He could clearly see the kid in front of him but whenever he tried to describe what he was looking at to himself he couldn't find the words. He didn't know why he couldn't describe her. The color of her eyes, her hair, everything about her was so clear yet he couldn't put what he saw to words._

" _Not yet," she said._

" _Excuse me?"_

" _You can't rest yet. You still have work to do."_

" _Okay… what do I need to do?"_

" _You go and do what you do best."_

" _What do I do best?"_

 _She smiled and gestured with her hand to look behind him and he complied. He saw a city he had never seen before. The skyscrapers were long and winding like animal horns. There were icy mountains to the north west and a desert under it to the south west. A tropical rain forest ran all the way down the east and in the middle was a huge metropolis._

 _It was the greatest city he had ever seen, or it would have been if it wasn't being destroyed at the moment. The sky had turned blood red and the skyscrapers looked like they would collapse at any moment. Smoke was climbing high into the sky in columns all over the city and he could hear explosions from where he was standing. He turned to look at the little girl but she had been replaced with an older version of her. She looked about his age, maybe a little older as he was twenty one. And even though_ _he couldn't describe her, she looked absolutely beautiful to him._

" _You saved people right? So go! Save them!"_

 _She pointed to the ground and he looked down to find his helmet and medkits. Sam nodded and bent down to pick up his equipment. When he stood up he was standing in a grand train station in ruin. A group of children were running towards him him. Most of them were wounded and all of them looked scared out of their minds._

" _Save us, please!" They pleaded as they tugged at his shirt with tears and blood running down their faces. The oldest of them couldn't have been more than ten years old but they all were equally frightened._

 _Suddenly he was grabbed from behind and turned around to face a man he had never seen before though he couldn't describe him either._

" _We don't take the children! We need you on the front, soldier!" he informed Sam with urgency._

" _Y-yes sir!"_

 _Sam saluted him and turned to run, leaving behind both the man and the children behind. Just then he went weightless, being thrown into the air by an explosion. He hit the ground with a thud. The pain was unimaginable as he laid on the ground writhing._

" _You thought zat our battle vas over, American?"_

" _Why does that voice sound so familiar?" Sam thought as he tried to stand up. Suddenly he was kicked back done to the ground as the man who spoke pointed a rifle at him._

"V _elcome to hell, Yankee Bastard."_

 _ **BANG!**_

Sam woke up with a start, nearly screaming as he jumped up. His heart was racing as he tried to make sense of his dream. He sat there shivering. His dreams had always been vived but they had never been _that_ real. He could _feel_ the pain and fear. Though there was no use trying to think about it now, something about that whole thing was… Something supernatural he though.

As he sat there recovering he tried, in vain, to understand what was going on. He sighed and got up from his resting spot and headed for town after just telling himself that his situation just wasn't going to make sense any time soon. The moon shown bright tonight which he took as a sign of good luck as he headed back for "Bunny Burrow".

* * *

Sam spotted a clothing store about fifteen minutes after he left. He had been keeping to the shadows to conceal his movements the whole time he was in town so he wouldn't be spotted. He noticed the light was still on in the the store so he crept around the light should anyone come out and spot him. Once he built up his confidence he ran to the doors and, quietly as he could, opened the glass door. A little bell rang as he stepped in.

" _Ah shit."_

"Hello?" someone called out.

Sam looked around frantically. Directly in front of him there was an open door to the back of the store where the voice came from. To the right of it was a counter with what he had to have guessed was a cash register. To his left were two lines of racks of clothing that stretched from one end of the store to the other with dressing rooms to his immediate left. He hid in the dressing room nearest him and watched through a crack in the door as an elderly ewe walked out of the back room and looked around.

When she concluded that she was just hearing things she shook her head and walked back to the room muttering something about "getting too old". Sam slowly opened the door and watched for her. When he figured he was safe he started to browse. All the clothes nearest the door looked like they were meant for rabbits, predictably, but it seemed that the stuff meant for bigger animals was near the back.

He checked out the shirts first. The biggest they had looked like they would fit him so he looked for one he liked. He had never seen shirts so colorful. They all had some sort of logo on them like "Welcome to Bunnyburrow!" or "Have a 'hoppy' day!" or "Home is where the carrots grow!" and all other kinds of cheesy annoyingly funny tourist crap. He decided right there that he wouldn't be caught dead wearing _that_ corny bullshit so he turned to the pants.

All they had were blue jeans which he found a little strange as they were meant for cowboys and coal miners and no one really cared for them back home. He picked out a dark pair and put them around his waist. They looked like they would fit him and the denim felt softer than he expected between his fingers. He put them on and remembered seeing a mirror in the changing room so he went in there and checked himself out.

His fur was slightly dirty but he looked pretty good considering. Just then there was a loud crash in the backroom and he could hear the old ewe say something having to do with "butterfingers" so he took that as his opportunity to leave. He slipped out of the dressing room, out the door and back onto the street. This time with some cloths.

He walked on around the business side of town for a while just taking in the sights. There were rabbits enjoying dinner in the restaurants and no one was payed him any heed. His stomach growled and he started considering where to look for a meal. If he had to go dumpster diving he would but he would but-

"Hey you! Wolf!"

" _Uh oh."_

Sam stopped dead in his tracks under a street lamp and raised his hands.

"Hey now, easy… I surrender."

"Really? Oh cool! Now give me your money and i'll let'cha go!"

" _Wait… What did he say?"_

Sam turned around with his hands still up in the air to see a little rabbit in a black coat with a hood on and black jeans holding a little switchblade.

"Um kid…"

"DON'T CALL ME A KID!"

"Jeese! Fine… Um… Buddy, I don't have any money. I promise."

"Wait…. You're lying! Just give me your money and I promise I'll let you go!"

Sam could tell this was getting nowhere fast. He didn't want to hurt the kid (assuming he even _was_ a kid) but things were escalating quickly and it looked like he had no choice. Plus the Guy was mugging him. This rabbit should have seen this one coming.

"Okay ki-... Listen… You can take my word as truth or not, but I'm being honest I really don't have any cash on me." Sam said as he stepped ever so closer to the animal.

"Don't you DARE come any closer!" The kid shouted.

"Okay, look! Just put the knife down… I don't want to hurt you but I **will** if I have too." He said as he took another step towards him.

"I'M WARNING YA! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!" He said as he shook like a leaf. Sam didn't notice it before but the kid was scared. Not just nervous but _scared_ … Scared of him to be clear. Sam could even _smell_ the fear coming off of the rabbit.

"Kid you're not gonna kill me and you know it. Just put the knife down and go home." Sam said and took just one more step closer.

Just then the bunny charged him. Shouting his little battle cry as he jumped towards and brought his knife down on where he thought the wolf was, but hit nothing but air. Meanwhile Sam had done the smart thing and sidestepped away from the little maniac. While the Kid was disoriented Sam quickly grabbed his paw and kneed the knife out of it and put him in a choke hold.

"That wasn't a smart thing to do!" He said to the struggling animal.

He let go and grabbed him by his hood and lifted him up to eye level. He was pissed but what he did was kind of expected by Sam.

"Please! I-I'm sorry! P-please let me g-go!" The rabbit pleaded.

"Oh quit it, you had this coming." Sam replied with a bit of annoyance.

"P-please don't hurt me!"

Sam was taken aback by that. Of course he wasn't going to hurt the kid… Well… Anymore then he already had anyway. Though needlessly hurting people had never had any appeal to him. Though then again this little brat needed to learn a lesson and Sam needed cash anyway…

"Fine," sam said. "But give me your wallet."

"Wha…"

The rabbit was practically in tears now as Sam rolled his eyes and asked again.

"Just give me your wallet and I'll let you go."

The kid reached into his pocket.

"Oh and if you pull another knife out you **will** regret it."

He nodded and pulled out his wallet and handed it to Sam. He opened the black fabric made wallet and took out about eighty dollars worth of twenties out of it with his one hand and let it fall to the ground. He noticed though the currency looked nothing like the stuff he had back home. Although when he thought that it made sense. He also saw what he could only guess was an identification card of some sort. " _Maybe a driver's license perhaps..._ _Felix Fuzzbottom? Really?... Wow... These people..."_ Sam thought.

"You were even carrying something with your name on it while going out to rob someone?" Sam asked the quivering creature in his grasp, raising his eyebrow as he asked.

He dropped the kid and picked up the discarded knife. And then started to walk away with his hands in his pockets.

"Thanks for the money!"

"Y-you… How DARE you! You think that just because you're a pred you can just push us around, huh!? You no good dirty **chomper!** "

Sam stopped.

"Do you want to die tonight **boy**?" He asked without turning back with a calm manner.

The kid's blood turned to ice as he stared at the wolf who was just standing in the road a couple of yards away from him. He quickly turned around and fled.

Now that "that" was done Sam looked to one of the restaurants that was next to him. A crowd had gathered at the door and some were holding up little thin slats of what appeared to be metal above their heads.

"Hey this ain't a theater! Show's over!"

They all jumped, put whatever those things were in their pockets, and went back inside. Sam walked on.

" _Now to find something to eat."_

* * *

The smell coming from the bakery in front of Sam was intoxicating. It reminded him of the day's him and his mother stayed in the shelter where she would use the kitchen and his mother would make pie for everyone. His stomach growled again so he walked in. there were tables to the right lined along the wall with huge windows above the seats and a glass counter to the left that had all kinds of baked goodies inside. A whole assortment of cakes and breads were visible through the glass on display. And it was making Sam even more hungry.

Another bell had rung as he walked in but unlike before nobody had come out to greet him.

"Hello? You guys are still open, right?" he called out.

"Hold yer'self I'm comin'!" a voice called out from the back with a heavy southern accent.

A fox about a foot shorter the Sam walked out of the kitchen and greeted him with a friendly smile.

" _Wait… There are foxes here too? What did that kid say?... Why would they let foxes live here?"_

"Can i get y'all something?"

This broke Sam out of his trance as he lightly shook his head and smiled back. " _Just play it cool. You don't know how he'll react to anything you say or do."_ he told himself.

"Oh.. Um… Can i just get something cheap to eat? I'm kind of tight on cash right now."

"Oh well th' cheapest thin' I got is pie." the fox said said "What kind would y'all like?"

"You have blueberry?"

Sam saw a glimmer of pride flash across the fox's face.

"I got th' best'n'th' Burrow! I'm Gideon by th' way."

Gideon reached out his paw and Sam shook it.

"Samuel Ren. Nice to meet you Gideon!'

The fox nodded his head and let go of him.

"So how much do I owe for the pie?"

"Well twenty bucks is y'all buy the whole thin'."

Sam's stomach growled and Gideon chuckled.

"I'll take it you want a whole pie?"

"Well… Oh alright. _I'm tight on cash but whatever…"_

He was hungry and twenty dollars didn't sound _too_ bad at the moment. If worse came to worse he could try and find a job, but he would have to make due for now. And as of right now he had some questions that he wanted answers for.

His stomach growled again and he figured that his questions could wait til he finished eating. Gideon walked into the back to get his food and Sam looked for a place to sit. He found one by the far back window in the back of the shop and waited patiently while he tried to figure out how he was going to ask these questions without sounding completely insane.

A few minutes later Gideon came out with a steaming blueberry pie in both his paws. He set it down on the table in front of Sam and smiled warmly.

"Here y'all go!"

"Ah, thanks!"

Sam smiled back and dug out a twenty from his pocket and handed it to the fox who took it and walked back to the the counter.

"So is there a particular reason why y'all goin' round without a shitr'n?" Gideon called from behind his back.

"Oh… Um… It's a nice night out?"

Sam smiled a bit awkwardly and could tell that Gideon didn't buy it by the look he gave him from behind the register.. " _Ugh maybe i should just tell the truth."_ He sighed and continued.

"Eh, I don't own a shirt… I just got into town…"

"Y'all didn't bring any clothes with ya?"

"I don't own anything but these jeans… ' _And i had to steal them so…'_ " _  
_"Wait… Where do y'all come from?"

"Ever hear of a city called Chicago?"

"I don't reckon i have…"

"Yeah i figured…"

"Huh… Well here's your pie."

Gideon leaned down and opened the counter, grabbing a nice big pie out from the inside of the glass display case, and brought it over to Sam's table.

"Oh thank you again!"

"Y'all'er lucky. This there was th' last pie in stock. And i was just gettin' ready to close fer th' night."

"Well i guess I was just born lucky huh?" Sam replied and laughed at the irony in his own little joke. " _How can I be lucky if I will probably never see my mom again… Well at least I'm alive huh?_

"Yeah alive and in a world full of talking animals."

"What was that?" Gideon asked.

"Huh? Oh, nothing!" He had let that comment slip and had nearly paid for it. " _I need to keep my cool before i blow it!"_ He chided.

"Um… Are y'all okay?"

"Eh, I'll live. So i have a question. Why is it that a fox would be living around all these rabbits?"

Gideon's face grew dark. He knew he asked a bad question the moment it left his lips.

"Why would y'all ask that?" His tone was normal but it did nothing to hide the edge in the question.

"Oh… Um well… I was harassed just a bit ago… The kid made it sound like "our kind" weren't allowed here."

The dark look left his face and was replaced with confusion.

"Now why would anyone want to harass y'all?"

"The kid tried to mug me . When that didn't work he started throwing insults at me… Is that normal around here?"

"Heavens no!... Who did this?!"

"Ah don't worry 'bout it. The kid got what was coming to him." He said as he smiled.

"What happened?'

"Well… He came at me with a knife and i just kinda… Defended myself… Heh heh."

"Y'all didn't hurt him did ya?"

"What? Oh, no of course not! I just showed him that crime doesn't pay."

"Well… as long as y'all and him aren't hurt, but I can tell y'all that mammals 'round here aren't that mean. They'll like y'all fer sure."

"Well that's reassuring!"

Sam noticed his pie was getting cold so as Gideon walked back into the kitchen he took a bite with the fork that was laying inside a napkin on the table. The crust was nice and buttery and the filling was sweet and pleasant. It wasn't as good as his mother;s but was a close second. As soon as Gideon walked back out Sam had finished his whole pie and was sitting back relaxing.

"Y'all ate that _whole thin'_?"

"What? It was good!" He said with a smile.

"I heard that wolves could eat but…"

"Well I guess I'm the poster child for my entire race- er… Species."

"... I reckon so. Do you have anywhere to sleep for the night?"

"Oh… About that, can you tell me where the nearest cheap hotel is?"

"No i can't… There aren't that many 'round these parts…. I'll tell y'all what, y'all can come and stay with me!" Gideon said with a smile.

"Oh, well if it isn't any trouble… ' _No way is he offering to let me sleep with him. What is he up too?'_ "

"Not at all! Come on I'm closing up anyways."

He beckoned for Sam to follow and he did while throwing out the pie tin in the trash while he headed out the door. Once out on the street he followed Gideon out behind the building to a van that was parked in front of a loading dock. Gideon got in and Sam decided that sleeping in a stranger's house was better than sleeping out on the street. So he walked around to the shotgun side and got in. It was a little cramped (the van being made for animals about Gideon's size) but wasn't too uncomfortable.

"Put yer seatbelt on, now." Gideon chided.

Sam looked around a bit in confusion but then spotted the belt next to him on his right. He grabbed it and dragged it over to what he assumed was the buckle and pushed it down til he heard a click. " _There, I think i got it…"_

"Hey d' y'all like music?" Gideon asked.

"Well I would say so."

He watched as the fox reached for the dash and started playing with some knobs and buttons. Music started to play but it was unlike anything Sam had ever heard before

"TRY EVERYTHING!"

"... What kind of music is this?"

"Well this here I reckon is that one singer. Gazelle I reckon her name is."

" _A singer named 'Gazelle'?..._ Okay but what _type_ of music is this? I've never heard anything like this."

"Oh… Y'all never heard of pop music?"

"No can't say that I have. Is that what it's called?"

"Well yeah I reckon."

"Oh… Okay."

It wasn't bad in Sam's opinion but he liked the music he was used to more. Though he did have to admit that it was more lively than the music he had back home. The thirty minute rind was spent listening to the radio play all kinds of various songs and making small talk. At one point Gideon asked him where he was from.

"Chicago."

"Huh? Never heard of it."

"Yeah I figured. It's this big city."

"Well the only city 'round these parts is Zootopia."

"Excuse me?"

" _Oh that has to be_ _ **the**_ _most ridiculous name for a city I have ever heard. Do they know the irony in that name?"_ He thought as Gideon gave a funny scoul while keeping his eyes on the road.

"Y'all never heard of Zootopia? Then what are y'all doin' in the Burrow?"

"Well… Truth be told i'm kind of lost at the moment. I woke up in the woods about a mile out. Had no idea where I was."

Gideon took his eyes off the road for a second to look at sam with a puzzled look.

"What happened to y'all?" " _Oh shit… What am I gonna say?"_

"Well… I really don't know honestly."

"Huh, well if you woke up in the woods then Chicago must not be that far away. Though I wonder why i haven't heard of it since y'all say it's a city."

"Oh I said I was from there. But I wasn't there when I…"

"When you what?"

"Uh… was knocked out. Yeah I woke up completely naked in the middle of nowhere."

"Oh… Is that why y'all don't have a shirt on?"

"Yeah actually."

"Then where'd y'all get them there pants?"

"Oh this old sheep kindly donated them to me!" Sam replied with a smile.

"Ah hahaha! Yeah folks around here are pretty kind to mammals in need." " _Heh, yeah this knife in my pocket is proof of that."_

They pulled up to what Sam imagined a hobbit hole would look like had one been made out of wood. It looked like a wooden hill in the middle of a nice patch of land that had been fenced off. They both got out and Gideon flipped through his keys while they walked up to the structure.

"This is a pretty nice place you got here!" Sam said with respect.

"Yeah, Got it fer cheap too!" He said as he unlocked the door and stepped inside.

Sam followed suit and looked around. It had a very cozy feel and the air hung heavy with the smell of baked goods. To his right was an open door he guessed led to the kitchen and to his left there was the entrance to a hallway that led both forward and down at an angle. In front of him was the living room with a red fabric couch and a glass coffee table. The couch was facing what looked like a black mirror with a base coming out of the bottom sitting on some sort of stand that had all sorts of boxes and wires coming out of their backs.

"I'm sorry, this is an _amazing_ place you got here!" Sam said with a smile.

"Ah well thank ya very much! The bathroom is down the hallway, first door to the left. The guest bedroom is right next to it. Just make

yerself at home partner!"

"Ah thanks!" Sam said as he walked towards the hallway. He opened the door to the bathroom and looked around. There was no tub. Just a glass stall. The glass was milky and there was a door hanging open with a shower head inside on the wall.

" _Well… This is something."_

He took off his pants and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. Once he figured out how to work the damn thing he used a bit of shampoo that he found and began to clean himself. Once he was done he dried himself off with a towel and put his pants back on, walked out, and went to go sit on the couch. Gideon was probably in the kitchen he thought as he could hear humming coming from the open door.

He sat down and brought the knife out to inspect it closer. It was nothing special. Didn't even have a design on it. Just a little flip blade that barely fit in his hands…Or…

" _I guess there 'paws' now… Maybe this won't be so bad… I just got to look at the positive side of things. I'm not dead! At least, I don't think I am. If I was then why would I feel hunger?"_

He sat there pondering all of this while twirling the knife in his fingers. He had been pretty good with switchblades when he was human and was surprised to find that despite missing a finger he was still fairly good at spinning it around like a street performer would.

"Where'd y'all get the knife!?" Gideon said with a bit of surprise.

"Oh.. This? From that idiot that tried to mug me."

Gideon looked at him in shock.

"Okay, what happened?"

"Yeah, since he thought it was a good idea to try and mug me I taught him a lesson!" he said and laughed.

"What did y'all do to him?"

"Aw nothin' much. Just told him to leave it to the professionals and took his toy and money."

"You took his money!?"

"Oh…. Hehehehahaha! Where did you think I got the cash to pay for your pie? Hahahaha!"

"Y'all didn't hurt the guy did you?"

"Na just put some fear into him."

"Did y'all get a name?"

"Yeah… But i'm not a snitch."

"What? That boy has been terrorizing the town for weeks now! We need t' go t' the police!"

"Na, no need. I doubt we'll see him again."

"This ain't right. Why would you take his money. That makes you no better than him."

Sam chuckled.

"I never claimed to be better then him. And it was stolen money anyway, free for the taking. And he needed to feel the shame of getting stolen from so he finds out it's better to be nice to others. Where I'm from we have a saying. 'There is always a bigger fish'. That means that sooner or later he was gonna run into someone bigger than him, or even me, and he wasn't gonna have as good a time as he had with me."

Gideon still was looking at him with a mixture of both shock and unease. Though Sam thought he could start to see a look of understanding creep it's way onto his expression.

"Just because it was stolen didn't mean that it was okay to steal it from him."

"Oh hahaha! You would like to think so wouldn't you, but here's the thing. What goes around comes around. If he's gonna steal something then someone's gonna steal from him!"

Sam just loved Gideon's logic. It was a welcome change from the people of Chicago, or hell, everyone he ever met. He had this sort of innocence to him that was both adorable and felt great to witness. It reminded him of when he was a child.

"Now if you still have a problem with what I did or that i'm not going to the police for this then i'll try to explain tomorrow. I know this seems like a jerk move but I need to go thing about some personal things right now. Thank you again for letting me stay the night here. Now i bid you goodnight."

With that, he pocketed the knife, got up and took a low bow and headed for his bedroom.

"Well…. Night y'all…"

"Goodnight Gideon. And thank you again."

He walked in his room leaving behind the fox. The room itself was cozy enough. There was a window in the middle of the wall in front of him and a bed in the left hand corner against the wall with a nightstand next to it which had a lamp on it. A wardrobe was pushed up against the middle of the wall to his right and there was a tan shag carpet on the wood floor and the closet was right next to it nearest the back wall. It was quite cool that night so Sam opted to open the window for the night.

He laid down on the bed and thought about the day he just had. It was probably the weirdest day in the history of mankind. He had to deal with it though. He had no idea what he was doing but had to keep moving. For his mother. He sighed as he got under the covers and turned off the lamp. Letting the shadows creep into his mind and into his dreams as he drifted off to sleep for the second time today.

* * *

 **Ugh... Sorry everyone for the delay and I promise I'll try to get the next chapter up a _lot_ sooner. **

**Anyway, I forgot to mention this in the last Chapter but this story was inspired by AlbineFox's story "Striped Up".**

 **So now that _that's_ out of the way if any of you spot any typos or things that you think should be changed then please feel free to PM me... I don't know how soon I'll be able to get back to you but I'll try. **

**Well I'm gonna sign off here. I encourage any of you to leave a review as well!**

 **Proof reading done by Tremainj and Kaii Kitsune!**

 **Have an awesome 4th of July weekend everyone!**

 _Fox signing off_


	3. As The Pieces Fall Into Place

**Chapter 2.5**

 **As The Pieces Fall Into Place**

The wind wiped around her like a devil, trying to pull her off the balcony and onto the street below. Though she didn't mind as the wind felt good on her fur. She stood leaning against the railing watching the sun paint the sky blood red, gold, and the undersides of the clouds pink. She still couldn't believe that her friend could afford a place like this. Well, then again, he _couldn't_ but someone or other owed him a favor and whatnot. That aside it was a nice apartment and with this west side view, she was seriously considering moving in with him.

"Yo Carrots, you comin' in?"

"Yeah, I'll be in here in a second."

She didn't want to break away from this beautiful sight, but she had a job to do. And she put her job above all else. So she turned around and headed inside. The inside was clean which was a bit of a shock as she knew how messy her partner in crime fighting was. Though she was not gonna be complaining anytime soon. She walked through the living room and into the adjoining kitchen. She sat down at the table where her partner was already seated and sighed.

"First an armed robbery and now extra work." She said.

"Aw, what's the matter Carrots? Cop life getting you down?"

She smiled. "Not a bit."

"Well then since you're so perky would you mind reading that out loud to me?"

"Why can't _you_ read it?"

"Oh, I already did. I just want to hear your cute voice some more." He stated with a sly smile as he leaned his chair back.

She sighed. _"Sly Nick."_ She thought with a smile.

She looked down at the yellow folder on the table in front of her and picked it up. It had been given to her later that day at a press conference by the newly elected mayor Le Pew. A skunk with a charming personality and a desire to always put the well-being of others before herself. Le Pew had asked her to look at it with her partner whenever they got the chance as it contained new information on an old case of theirs. So here they were. She opened it and skimmed through it finding nothing of interest except for some strange pictures. Until she got to the bottom.

 _"We have reason to believe that the Third Reich had been funding and encouraging the antics of Dawn Bellwether six months ago with indirect funding for both the weapon that was used to administer the nighthowler serum as well as the lab equipment used to synthesise the serum and we even have reason to believe that they may have even given her the research and formula she had used. Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to head to New Germany and gather intel on the Nazi party._

"Hey, Nick?"

"Hum?"

"What's the 'Third Reich'?

"You're asking me?"

"I thought you knew everyone in this city?"

"I do. _In this city._ Those guys aren't from Zootopia."

"Then where do they come from?"

"Well if you actually read that thing you would know."

She looked back down at the yellow folder and started at the beginning.

 _"It has come to my attention, via an old friend of mine, that former mayor Dawn Bellwether had outside support during her attempted coup. Our research has come to find indirect evidence of the influence of a foreign political party known as the 'National Socialist German Workers' Party' or more commonly known in their country of origin the 'Third Reich' or 'Nazi Party'. Their country of origin is called 'New Germany', located north, high in the Claw Mountains. The country itself is only a few decades old and consists of about 178,500 square kilometers in size with its capital city 'New Berlin'. Its current leader's name is Joseph Goebbels (most current picture shown below) and is not only a known member of the party but has been known to be fanatical in his devotion to it._

Below the paragraph was an angle shot of a sheep dressed in a dark grey uniform with black trim and decorated with all kinds of medals. He was standing at a podium and appeared to be furiously giving a speech to a crowd. The podium along with the building behind him had flags on them with symbols she had never seen. It was basically a red flag with a white circle in the middle with what reminded her of a black X with the sides bent in a clockwise direction in the middle of the circle. The flags on the building had the same design except that they were much taller and thinner.

"So first we stop a terrorist and now we need to see if it was a conspiracy." She stated.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." Nick retorted with a yawn. "The cop life getting to ya Carrots?"

"Not. Even. Close." She said with enthusiasm, a smile breaking through to her face.

Nick shrugged. "Hey, at least we get a paid vacation. So what do you say Jude, should I go start packaging?"

Judy looked at her partner with empathy. _"Oh, this pore fox. He thinks I'm gonna let him sit around on his tail the whole trip."_ She got up and walked back outside, barely containing her giggles. "Sure, Nick. You go pack. I guess we're leaving tomorrow!"

* * *

 **Hey guys. Just thought I should write this to hold you guys over till I can access Google Docs again to retrieve the work I did on chapter three. As well as to replace the "Update" I wrote explaining my disappearance. So for those of you who don't know why I'm going on hiatus is because my computer broke about two months past and I had to write this on my PS4. I say this because posting the update chapter was apparently against the terms of service for this site so I'm gonna get rid of it before one of the mods bans me. I'm not gonna give you guys a date as to when I can continue the story as It could be months from now, or even by tomorrow (though the former is much more likely). Well, that's all for now. Sorry to let you guys down but trust me, I want nothing more than to finish this story right now.**

This is Fox signing off

Vi!


	4. Chapter III: The First Day in Paradise

_**Chapter III: The First Day in Paradise**_

" _So far as I could see, all the world displayed the same exuberant richness as the Thames valley. From every hill I climbed I saw the same abundance of splendid buildings, endlessly varied in material and style._

 _H.G. Wells "The Time Machine"_

Darkness. That's all he could see. Nothing but black, inky darkness, But it was alive. Alive and malevolent. All through the night it tortured Sam with visions that he so desperately hated. He saw visions of war and destruction almost every time he laid his head down to rest. And they never got any easier to handle. The sounds of gunfire and the smell of gunpowder were both overwhelming. This was his life now...

Sam groaned and opened his eyes. He didn't want to get out of bed, but the sun was shining through his window and the light was irritating him. He threw off the covers and sat up. Not remembering where he was or how he got there until he looked down at his fur covered chest and tail that was hanging off the side of the bed beneath his legs. He sighed and stood up, stumbling just a bit, and walked over to the door. There was a mirror hanging on the back of it and he got a _real_ good look at what he had to now consider himself to be the first time.

Again, he was a grey wolf with ash colored fur and midnight black tips on his ears and tail. He had kept his blue eyes through the… "Transition", he guessed he would have to call what happened to him yesterday. What happened yesterday _still_ baffled him. " _How am I going to get home if I'm not even on Earth any more?"_ Just then he heard someone talking. It sounded like it was coming from the living room. He opened the door and walked out to find that…

He caught his breath. The thing he had mistook for a black mirror last night was… It must have been some kind of television. Though it was unlike any sort of technology he had ever seen. The sound quality made it sound like he was actually listening to someone stand there and talk directly in front of him. And the picture… full color with intricate detail. And it was all coming from this flat screen no thicker than a door. He stood there with his mouth agape for a good minute or so just baffled by what he was seeing before his very eyes.

"Hey lookit! Your'n on the TV!" Gideon stated from behind him.

He was shaken out of his stupor and glanced at Gideon, then back to the television while paying more attention to what was being broadcast. There was a female rabbit in a black suit in front of a desk going on about...

"Local authorities still have yet to locate the wolf in question after last night's turn of events as the infamous "Burrow's Bandit" was subdued by a strange wolf who locals believe to be a foreigner, possibly from Zootopia. Video captured by eyewitnesses shows the sequence of events from the moment the attack commenced, to the wolf walking off into the night. We warn you that viewer discretion is advised as the video we are about to show you contains violence."

The video cuts to a scene where a wolf and a rabbit stood facing each other. The wolf had his hands in the air and started moving towards the rabbit. " _That's me!"_ Sam thought.

The video captured almost everything that went down last night, and they even printed what he and the kid said at the bottom of the screen in big white text. After Sam yelled at the… cameraman he guessed, the video cut back to the reporter.

"That was the last either the wolf or the mugger were seen. If anyone has any information concerning either of these individuals, please contact local law enforcement. In other news, plans for the Carrots Day festival are in full swing as local farmers are claiming that this year's celebration will be the biggest one in recent years.

"Seems th' cops want ta talk ta ya…"

"Yeah it would seem so… great… just great..." He said and sighed.

"What are ya gonna do?"

"Only one thing I _can_ do. Get this resolved before it get's out of hand."

"What's a hand?"

Sam looked over to Gideon and tilted his head curiously. Then he checked himself. "No humans" he reminded himself mentally.

"Um… what I meant was 'out of control'... Sorry, I'm just used to that term. It's another word for… 'Paw' I guess."

"Ah supposin' that makes sense. So ya goin' up to th' police station?"

Sam looks back to the television and shakes his head. _This is gonna be a_ long _day._

"... I guess so. Hey, do you happen to have a shirt I could borrow?

* * *

Sam sat in the van listening to Gazzel and trying to adjust the shirt Gideon had given him, while said fox was driving him up to the police station. He thought the shirt was uncomfortable as he was used to loose fitting clothing and this shirt seemed to love clinging to his chest. Though it _was_ a shirt meant for foxes or creatures with similar height.

Gideon had offered him a ride after Sam had asked for directions. He didn't want to be rude but on the other hand he didn't want to impose either. He brought this up but Gideon waved him off and told him that it was no trouble. He even told Sam while they were driving to the station that he wanted to testify as a witness even though he didn't really _see_ anything, which Sam pointed out.

"Besides," He told him. "It's not like I'm going to get into much trouble. I was defending myself… And taking his money taught him a lesson!"

"Well alright… Just be careful." He said as he pulled up to the station.

They got out and Sam had to admit he had seen better looking buildings. The windows were old and dusty. The walls were painted white but had green moss growing in patches and needed cleaning. There were weeds crawling up the walls and the building itself wasn't necessarily a feat of genius breakthrough of architectural amazement. Just a plain box of a building with windows on the front and a few on the sides with chain mesh over them.

He and Gideon walked in expecting the place to smell of mold and dampness but was surprised that the inside actually looked well kept and clean with it smelling like jasmine. There was a receptionist desk along with a row of plastic chairs on the left wall. The hallway to the right led off into a row of doors with frosted glass displaying different names on each, though they were too far away to make out.

The receptionist at the desk was what looked like a billy goat with a dark blue uniform and a bored expression on his face, which changed when he looked to see who had just walked in. he actually did a double-take when he eyed Sam and his jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Hello... " Sam said as he walked up to the desk.

"You're th-that one wolf, from last night, right?" The goat uttered in total shock.

"That's the one! I just came to make sure that I wasn't in too much trouble for what happened."

"Oh, n-no of course not! We've actually had mammals come in and tell us to thank you on their behalf for what you did!"

"Oh… Then why did you want me then?"

"W-we have some questions for you actually."

" _Naturally…"_ Sam thought. It was just his luck that he had to be interrogated in a shitty police station in some foreign land that he had no idea he even knew existed till about 35 hours ago (not to mention the fact that he had to die to get there and will probably never see his mother or friends again… But what the hell right?)

"Yeaaaah we need to know as much as we can… This has been the highest priority case all month. Just standard protocol… You understand right?"

Sam sighed. "What kinda things do you need to know?"

"Well who you are for starters?" _Shit._

"Uh… Samuel Ren…"

The goat started tapping on a little slab in front of him, that reminded Sam of a typewriter, and stared at a little lit up screen in front of him. After a while he looked back up at Sam.

"Is that how I think it's spelled?"

"My first name is, yes. 'Ren' is spelt with just one 'N'."

The guy started to type again and looked back up at Sam.

"Would this be correct? 'Cause Ithink i spelled it wrong…"

He turned the screen towards Sam and he verified that the goat had spelled it right.

"That name isn't in our database… Where are you from exactly?"

"Uh… Chicago…"

The goat… Named Jamis, (at least that's what the name tag that Sam noticed said), turned the screen back towards himself and started typing again.

"Um… I can't find any place named 'Chicago'... Are you messing with me?"

"No sir… I didn't expect you to know about it… It's not very well known here…"

"Well do you at least have any paperwork on you?"

"Can't say I do sir…"

"Then how on Andora did you get here?"

"Woke up naked in the woods yesterday."

Jamis looked at Sam with a "deer in the headlights" kind of look and turned to Gideon who up until then was just standing next to Sam and listening to them.

"Hey, don't look at me, they walked inta my store without a shirt'n last night askin' 'bout how preds were treated 'round these parts."

Jamis looked back to Sam with his jaw hanging low. He shook his head a bit and started typing on that thing again. He looked back at Sam and opened as if to speak but he stopped himself for some reason and turned back to the screen.

"So… You're not a citizen huh?"

"Guess so…"

"I made a profile for you… How old are you?"

"Uh, twenty one…"

Jamis typed some more then got up and walked from behind the counter and into the hallway and through the first door on the right. A few moments later he came out with a piece of paper and handed it to Sam.

"Just write your birth date and hand it back to me okay?"

Sam looked down at the paper and realized it was an identification paper and did as he was told. He grabbed a pen from the metal cup on the desk that was full of pens and entered the date of his birth then handed it back to Jamis who looked at it with a puzzled look.

"You were born in the year 1923?"

"Yeah… and?"

"The year is 268 man… Are you sure you're okay?"

"Where I come from, the year is 1944 so… Yeah I think I'm fine thank you."

He looked at Gideon who just looked just as confused as Jamis.

"Where _exactly_ did you come from again?"

"A country called America. Though I doubt you're gonna find that in whatever you have going on in that thing…"

"Well… You're twenty one right?"

Sam sighed. This was getting nowhere fast.

"Yes."

Jamis took the paper from Sam's hands and crumpled it up as he walked away with it and walked back into the room he went into before.

"Y'all come from a pretty strange place…" Gideon told him while they were waiting.

"Heh, I could say the same thing about you guys." The sad part was that it was true in more ways than one…

"Well… I reckon so…"

Jamis walked back in and handed the new piece of paper back to Sam and walked back around the counter.

"I went and added the _correct_ date for your birth… Except for the month and day. You gonna tell me that you guys don't have the standard twelve month calendar as well?" Jamis asked with a bit of a snarky and disrespectful tone.

"As long as you guys have twenty eight or nine days in February and the rest have thirty days then we should be fine…" Sam replied with the same tone.

He wrote the date he was born on, again, August 13. Then handed Jamis the paper back. The goat looked it over and seemed satisfied with it. He copied the information onto the copy and handed the paper back to Sam.

"Don't lose this. This is an I.D. paper. It's illegal to not have one here. Keep it wherever you like but don't lose it." Jamis said as he emphasized the last three words.

Sam nodded and looked it over.

Samuel Ren

Species: Gray Wolf Date of Birth: August 13, 247 B.C.

Hight: Average Place of Origin: Chicago, America

Fur Color: Gray with black Status: Immigrant

Eye Color: Blue

"Did I get everything?" Jamis asked.

"So… You are just gonna take my word for it and say that I'm from some land that you've... Probably never heard of before?"

"There are a lot more wild tribes out there in the Wildlands then you would think. So yeah I would believe you when you told me that you were from one of them."

"Wildlands?"

"The unexplored parts of the continents… That's what we call them. Yeah there's still a big chunk of unexplored land way up north."

Sam looked at him, puzzled. Though he thought that it was damn near retarded for them to not even bat an eyelash when he told them where he was from some distant land, but it was some good luck and he was going to take.

"Well… Alright then. I guess I'll be on my way then!" Sam said with a smile.

"Not so fast. The sheriff still want's a word with you." " _Shit"_

Jamis walked over to the wall mounted phone behind him and typed in a number. A few seconds later he started talking.

"Yes sir- Yeah everything's fine. Um, Remember that wolf that had everyone all riled up?- Yes sir he's here.- Yes I told him that.- Yes sir... Yes sir… Okay sir I got it... Yeah… See you soon sir."

He hung up and walked back to his chair and sat down.

"Sheriff said that he'll be here in a minute. Go ahead and make yourself comfortable."

He pointed to one of the chairs and Sam and Gideon obliged. They sat down and looked at each other. Sam sighed and Gideon turned his head to the window, as if he were anticipating something. Sam could see something was bothering him but he decided it was best to leave Gideon alone.

* * *

They sat there waiting for almost thirty minutes. Meanwhile Sam laid back and thought about his situation. Based on the information he had gathered it seemed that the locals actually _liked_ him so he doubted he would get jail time. Plus the fact that he wasn't in handcuffs and in a jail cell made him feel almost hopeful concerning his current predicament.

He looked over towards the window to see an old police cruiser park itself outside and saw an elderly fox in a blue sheriff's uniform walk out of it and up to the building. He walked in and glanced at Sam and nodded his head, then looked at Gideon and smiled.

"What'r y'all doin' with this here felon son?" The old fox addressed Gideon.

"Just lendin' a helpin' paw pa." Gideon said.

Sam leaned down and whispered in Gideon's ear.

"That's your dad Gideon?"

"Sure is! Heya pa, come meet Sammy!" Gideon stated with a huge grin.

The old fox walked up to Sam and outstretched a paw which Sam took.

"Nice to meet you sir! Your son has been very helpful to me this past day!" Sam said with a friendly smile and trying to be as polite as possible.

"Is that so? Well it's nice to meet'cha Samuel. Y'all can call me Robin."

Sam nodded as he let go of Robin's paw and sat back down. Robin sat next to him and pulled out a little notebook and a pencil out of his pants pocket.

"So let's get back t'basics. What were y'all doin' out last night?"

"Just looking for a place to eat sir. I woke up in the woods about five or so miles outside of town yesterday evening and had no idea how I got there."

Robin gave him a puzzled look… Just like they all did.

"And ya have no idea who put'cha there?"

"No sir. Last thing I remember is getting beat up and passing out…" " _Not a lie so… Whatever."_

"Can y'all remember who knocked ya senseless?"

Oh, Sam could remember the face of the man who killed him quite clearly, but it wasn't like he could just tell them that he had died to get here or they might think he was crazy. So he opted to lie.

"No sir… I honestly have no idea how I got here or why." " _That last bit wasn't exactly a lie so… eh."_

Robin looked down and wrote something in his notepad.

"So what happened last night?"

"Well… A kid jumped me and I taught him a lesson."

Robin smiled at that.

"Well 'cause y'all are new here and 'cause that young'n needed a good whippin'... I'll let y'all off with a warnin'. Don't cause anymore trouble in my town again. Y'all hear me?"

"Noted sheriff. Will do." Sam responded with a smile and a mock salute.

Robin nodded.

"It's such'a shame too. The Fuzzbottoms are one'a the most powerful families in the Burrows… Well… I guess it's not surprising why the young'n did what he did."

"Ah someone just needed to say 'no' to the spoiled child... And how did you know his name?"

"Oh he came in here earlier with his brother and gave up as much as he stole.

"So is that all you needed me for?"

"Yeah. everyone just wanted't know if they were safe. This was all just'a media stunt."

"So I'm free to go?"

"If y'all want. Though I _do_ have a nice empty cell for y'all in the back if y'all want?" Robin said with a sly smile.

Sam chuckled. "I'm fine, thank you!" He said with a smile.

He got up along with Gideon and walked toward the door. He had to say that he was getting the use of this tail now.

"Oh, son! A word if ya wouldn't mind?"

"Yeah pa, be right there."

"I'll go wait in the car…" Sam stated.

"Oh sure, I'll be right out!" Gideon replied.

And Sam walked out of the precinct and into the fresh morning breeze.

* * *

It was about ten minutes later when Gideon walked back out and hopped into the van. He sighed as he turned the ignition and backed up out of the driveway and towards the main road.

"Your dad sure seems okay. Pretty nice guy."

"Yeah, he's alright… I just wish I was'a better son when I was younger."

Sam got an underlying feeling of pain that he didn't feel like digging up. So he stayed quiet. Though he had an urge to say " _At least you_ _ **had**_ _a dad."_.

A couple minutes later they were pulling into the alley next to Gideon's bakery. They drove behind the shop and parked in front of the loading dock and got out.

"Well I guess this is goodbye huh?" Sam sighed.

"Why would ya say that?"

"Well I guess I'll be on my way now."

"But you won't have a place't stay…"

"I don't want to bother you though. It's okay, I'll think of something."

Gideon seemed to ponder that for a second. He then lit up and snapped his fingers.

"How 'bout y'all work for me! I've been looked for another paw to run this here business!"

"You would hire me?"

"Well why not? I have'a feelin' you're lookin' for a job anyway. And baking is easy! I'll show y'all how to do it in a jiffy. We'll have ya baking the best pies in the burrow by sundown!"

"Well… I guess… Yeah, what would it hurt? If you're looking for a helping hand anyway…"

"... You mean 'paw'?"

Sam looked at Gideon for a bit until he realized his mistake.

"Yeah… I meant 'paws'." He said with a chuckle.

 **Aaaaaaaaand I'm** **back!** _*Epic fanfare begins to play*_ **Hello evryone and to anyone who has stuck with me this far I want to say thank you! Now I have an important announcement. I'm currently working on a dramatic reading of this story and planning on posting it to YouTube! (Kamikazi_Fox), Now my YT account has just been for let's plays so far but I** ** _really_** **want to do this, but I can't without some help. There are voice acting positions currently open and I'm looking to fill them. Right at the moment I need someone to be able to play the voice for Judy Hopps and I need a woman with a very heavy French accent that will come in later. Now this isn't saying that** ** _all_** **the other slots are filled. In fact I'm gonna need more actors in the future but for right now those two positions are all I need to fill. So for anyone who's a regular reader and wants a part in this project but isn't qualified for any of the roles you see, just be patient and look for more openings in future author's notes.**

 **Well I think that's all for now**

 **This is Fox signing off:**

 **Vi!**


	5. Chapter IV: New Days, New Beginnings

**Chapter IV: New Days, New Beginnings**

"Hey you, 'Ren' was it? Come get your gun! I got five bucks says you can't hit four in a row."

Sam sighed and got up out of the Jeep he was sitting in and walked over to the makeshift firing range they had made out of an old barn and field. The fighter planes flew past the HQ overhead and the sound of their engines nearly drowned out the old gramophone that was playing some sort of French easy listening music.

Sam got to the table and looked down at the beat up M1 Garand that laid on the bench along side some magazines for it. Then he looked at the man who called him out. His name was Huxley, a submachine gunner who, just by listening to his accent, you could definitely tell he grew up redneck.

"Shouldn't we save the ammo for the Germans?" Sam asked.

"Na, we got plenty! The girls back home got us covered. Just aim down range and shoot those helmets on the posts. If you hit four in a row you win five bucks."

He looked down range and then back at Huxley. There was a barbed wire fence that separated them from the field with four posts dug into the ground with helmets on each, about four yards away.

"I don't know man… I'm not even supposed to hold a weapon… I'm a medic, remember?"

"You think them Krauts are gonna care whatcha are? They'll shoot you up same as me! Now pick up the rifle… or are you _chicken_?"

"Oh I'll show you who's chicken!"

Sam picked up the M1 and shot all four helmets off each post as quickly as he could. Huxley just looked at him with his jaw hanging to the floor.

"You… how'd y'all do that!"

Sam shrugged.

"I was the best shot at basic…"

Huxley took that in and shook his head in defeat. He then walked over to the next table that was a few feet away and opened the box that was sitting there.

"Ooh grenades… damn they got smoke grenades in here too."

He picked out a frag grenade and pulled the pin. He threw it into the field and about five seconds later it exploded, sending dirt everywhere.

"DID YA SEE THAT!?" Huxley said with glee.

"I saw you flinch when it went off." Sam replied with a chuckle.

"Aw y'all flinched too! Hey, your turn!"

"I'm not picking up one of those in a lifetime."

"So what you're saying is you're… _chicken._ "

Sam growled as Huxley started doing a really bad chicken impression and grabbed one of the grenades off the table and chucked it into one of the windows of the barn. After the explosion, Sam looked back at Huxley who had a grin.

"Fuck you, man…" Sam said.

"Aw come on! It was fun wasn't it? Now throw a smoke!"

Sam, who didn't want to hear the whole "chicken" thing again, did as he was told and tossed a smoke into the window. After a few seconds a huge cloud of smoke engulfed the building and started to tower over the HQ.

"Oh shit Nixon's looking right at us… Hey, Nix! We got a fighter over here!"

Sam looked over to where Huxley just shouted and saw the lieutenant next to the back end of a transport truck. The man went by the name of "Nixon" and wasn't one for goofing off.

Yeah that's real nice, but there's Nazis wearing helmets too. I want you two to go grab some more equipment and get on the truck."

"Hey, just don't tell him about our little grenade escapade okay Ren?"

Sam raised his eyebrow and looked behind him at the gigantic smoke cloud behind him and looked back at Huxley.

"I... _sigh_ …I won't say anything if you don't…"

Huxley grabbed the rifle and they walked over to the supply cachet and hauled a crate off of the pile.

"It's nailed shut." Sam stated.

"Yeah, the supply Sergeant likes to do that… Here watch out."

Huxley brought the butt of his gun down hard on the crate and the lid shattered. In the crate they found more ammo for the M1, some morphine and sulfanilamide vials, and a Thompson submachine gun.

"Oh, come to Papa, baby!" Huxley said as he handed Sam his rifle and picked up the submachine gun.

You guys done fuckin' around over there? Grab what you need and let's get going!"

Sam slung the gun over his shoulder and grabbed the medical supplies while Huxley went for all the ammo. They both walked over to the truck while a convoy passed the base camp. Sam caught his breath as he watched the tanks roll on like big metal tombs and the infantry that were following them.

He hopped into the back of the transport truck and found a seat in the back as everyone else filed in. Nixon hit the side of the vehicle as he jumped in. The truck started up and took off down the road.

"Alright, today we went on a mission to go find some coffee and donuts. The problem is, we found out the Krauts had drank all the coffee and ate all the donuts. So now, we gotta go kick their asses." Nixon informed them.

"Or we could stay back at the base and eat them nice French rolls they got." Huxley added.

"We'll be the spearhead of this operation. Our job is to clear a path into the main part of the city so the infantry can move in and secure Saint Lô… Ren, it's good that you have a rifle, I need every man I can get for this operation."

"Yes sir."

They rode in silence for a minute or two and watched as the troops and armor ran towards the hedgerows that laid beside of the road. The smell of the tank engines nearly suffocated them.

"Oh, MAN! I love that smell… smells like home." Huxley stated as everyone else was gagging and coughing from the fumes.

"HEY WAIT UP!"

A soldier had started chasing after the truck and everyone began to cheer him on.

"Come on you can make it!" Huxley shouted.

"Let's go private, hussle!" Nixon said.

"Guys this isn't funny!" The rifleman yelled.

Just then a mortar landed and sent the poor man flying and the truck started to veer off the road and into the hedges. The mortars continued to hit them hard and the vehicle began to lose control as everyone inside was tossed around like a ragdoll. After the third explosion the truck started to lean, and finally tipped sideways while sending Sam's head straight into the opposite bench.

* * *

"Sam, come on. Time to get up!"

Sam groaned as he opened his eyes. Last night was one of the most restless nights he had in a long time. He felt tired, and worst of all afraid. What had happened that day had left everyone cold and broken.

But despite it all… he was here now. And he wasn't going to let the past mess with his future.

"Sam! Ya need to hurry! I'm gettin' ready to leave."

"Yeah, I'm coming."

He got up from his bed and stretched. Despite not getting a lot of sleep he was still somewhat ready to start the day. After a quick shower he would be right as rain.

* * *

After a week or so of working for Gideon things kinda sorted themselves out into a routine of sorts. Every morning he would wake up, get dressed for the day (he had to keep reminding himself he only had one pair of jeans so he needed to keep up with laundry, and luckily Gideon had given him a pair of boxers to wear while he was washing), and head out to the bakery where he would man the cash register, move supplies around, and help bake the pies, cakes, and other sweets that were sold there.

It wasn't hard work, he found himself enjoying it actually. And yes, he had even started getting used to the fact that he was now in a world filled with talking animals. Though he missed his old life with his mother in Chicago more and more every day… he was content.

He stood there leaning over the counter and thinking about the dream he had last night. Sure it was bad, but it wasn't like _that_ memory would be repeating itself anytime soon. That day turned out bad for everyone, even Pearson… and that man was as tough as rocks.

The doorbell jingled as a customer walked in and Sam turned to greet him. And then he noticed who it was.

It was the kid from the first night. Felix or something. Wearing a white shirt with blue jeans.

"Well looky here! Ready for round two kid?"

Once Felix noticed who was at the register he froze with fear. He started to look around frantically for only God knows what.

" _Maybe somewhere to run after he tries to rob the place…"_ He thought.

"So you just gonna stand there kid or are you gonna get something?" Sam said with a smirk.

"I-I was just gonna get some pie…" Felix uttered, completely terrified.

"Alright, what kind?"

"W-what?"

"What. Kind. Of. Pie."

"Um… you know what, I'm not hungry anymore!"

"Kid I told you before, unless you're looking for a fight I'm not gonna hurt you."

"R-really?"

"Cross my heart. Now what kind of pie do you want?"

"Well… do you have any apple?"

"Yeah… let me go get one."

Sam walked around into the back and over to the rakes of pre-bakes pies that they had made that morning and grabbed an apple one." He walked out of the kitchen and into the dining area half expecting to see Felix trying to break into the register. Though he found the kid sitting patiently at one of the tables closest to the door.

"That'll be twenty five bucks kid." Sam stated as he put the pie in a box, sat it on the counter and punched the information into the register.

"Please, don't call me a kid…" Felix asked as he walked up to the counter with his wallet in his paws.

Sam looked at him and chucked.

"Not in a million years _kid_. Now… how did you avoid jail time?"

"My brother, Finnly, him and the sheriff are close friends and Rob owed him a favor…"

"So what you're saying is… you let your older brother bail you out instead of taking the punishment like a man… yeah you're definitely a child!" Sam said and laughed.

"Oh would you like to go to jail!?"

"No. That's why I don't go around and do stupid shit like try to rob mammals that are five times bigger than me."

Sam had learned the first few days he had been here that people don't like to be considered "animals" here and see that term as an insulat. They preferred to be called "mammals in return. This comment left Felix stunned for a bit but he shook his head in defeat and payed Sam.

"Thanks."

"Hey, at least you have manners! You're quite welcome! Come back soon _kid_!"

Felix huffed in annoyance as Sam chuckled and headed out the door with his box of pie in paw.

"Oh, hey Tala…" He addressed someone on his way out.

"Hello Felix! It's nice to see you! You feeling okay?" Sam heard someone, obviously a young girl, reply back before the door shut.

Through the glass he watched as a younger, gray rabbit wearing a pink plaid shirt and dark blue pants walked up to the kid and addressed him kindly. They greeted each other and Felix walked away as the girl walked into the store as a truck back up into the alley.

"Hello!"

"Hi there miss. What can I do for ya?"

"I'm actually here to help with the delivery."

"I… wasn't informed of this… Gideon is actually out at the moment."

"Oh we know! We just got a call from him. He told my dad to just go ahead and let you handle the crates. You're Sam, right?"

"Yeah…"

"I'm Tala. It's nice to meet you Sam!"

He had to admit, her enthusiasm was a breath of fresh air.

"Well… thank you! It's nice to meet you too. You wanna come into the kitchen? I guess I have to go unload this anyway."

"Oh sure! My dad should be parked outside of the loading dock now."

Sam nodded as he held the door open for the little girl and walked through the kitchen and towards the back into the loading dock. He entered the garage like room and opened the gate where a small truck was parked outside with an older rabbit (who Sam had to guess was old as it wasn't that easy to tell) who was dropping the tailgate. The gate made a noticeable bang when it opened all the way and that startled the guy who whirled around and looked like he was having a heart attack. He didn't seem to calm much when he saw Sam either…

"Um… you okay sir?"

He leaned over and tried to catch his breath (he was wheezing fairly badly) and raised his paw.

"Just… _gasp_. Just startled me there… Gideon didn't tell me you were a wolf…"

"Daddy! That's not very nice!"

Sam looked behind him to see Tala with her arms crossed and damn… if looks could kill.

"Ah, I'm sorry… that was rude of me." The man said as he regained his poise and held his paw out.

"Stu Hopps."

"Samuel Ren. It's nice to meet you." He replied as they shook hands.

"So… you jumped because… I'm a wolf?"

"Well you know! One of our natural enemies and all!" Stu replied to Sam's question with a laugh.

Once he noticed Sam wasn't laughing along with him he looked over and found that Sam looked confused.

"Did… did I offend you?"

"Um… no? Why would you think of me as the enemy though? Haven't yous all… moved on or something?"

Stu chuckled nervously and looked over at Tala for support. Though when he saw that she looked like she was getting ready to chew him out he realized he was on his own.

"Well… you know… it's just a lot of… I mean…"

Sam raised his hand to stop him.

"You know what. I'm over it. Let's just get this shit unloaded and we can forget about this."

Sam looked over at Tala and sighed.

"And you best behave missy. He's still your father."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" She asked.

"I know that look. Just let it go." He informed her.

She nodded and Sam stated grabbing crates of blueberries, carrots, flour, and sugar. After he was about half way done he noticed that the two rabbits had started a hushed conversation. He tuned his newfound advanced hearing in on the two and caught a bit of the conversation.

"You don't just go around and tell wolves that you're scared of them because they used to hunt us daddy!"

"But that's the thing Tala! They used to _hunt_ us! They may have gotten past that but look at him! All of those sharp teeth and those claws! He could go savage and rip you to bits in an instant!"

"Daddy! That's specist! Predators don't go savage! Stop being so mean!"

"Ugh… I'm sorry darling… but you know how I am… I can't help it."

"You got over it when you said you wanted to work with Gideon."

"Yeah but that was different."

"How! Gideon was probably worse than him! He beat Judy up when they were kids! And don't even get me started on how Pawpaw goes on and on about how foxes are the devil."

"I… but-"

"Excuse me, sir. I finished unloading."

Sam's interjection made both of them jump a bit.

"Already?" Tala asked. "It takes Gideon half an hour to unload all that!"

"Well I'm used to the work. Now, do I owe you anything or has Gideon already paid you?"

"Oh…" Stu said, (again, trying to catch his breath because of Sam) "No it's alright! Gideon already paid me for the delivery yesterday… thank you, Sam…"

"You're welcome sir. Have a nice evening!"

As Sam walked back towards the kitchen door, Tala called out for him.

"Hey Sammy! Wait up!"

Sam turned around.

"The Carrot Day festival is tomorrow. We're you planning on going?"

"... Not necessarily, no."

"Oh…" Tala said, looking a bit downcast. Which Sam noted.

"Did you want to ask me anything Tala?"

"Well… I was going to ask you if you wanted to come with me… but if you're not going then I won't-"

"Well, I'll think about it.", He informed her with a smile.

She brightened up and jumped for joy.

"Yay! Oh I can't _wait_ to show you around! We're gonna have a blast! So where do you want to meet?"

"Whow now darling!" Stu piped up. "The young wolf said he would _think_ about it… right Sam?"

Stu looked to be on the verge of a panic attack. And he knew it was because of him. Sam couldn't understand his problem but didn't care much. After all, he wasn't an actual wolf…

"Well I might go… I just don't know if I'll have any free time tomorrow. But I'll ask."

"Yay!"

Stu looked at his daughter and facepalmed while Sam chuckled.

" _There is no way in hell that someone can be_ this _optimistic!"_

"So is there anyway I can contact you if something pops up?" Sam asked.

Tala thought for a second and pulled out a pen and tiny notebook and wrote something down on it. She then ripped off the piece of paper and handed it to Sam.

"That's my number. Calle as soon as you can so we can arrange this okay?"

Sam looked at the paper and nodded.

"I'll see if I can't borrow Gideon's phone… though I don't think he has one…"

Tala and Stu looked at him confused.

"What?" He asked them.

"Of course he has a phone." Stu informed him.

"Never seen it… I'll ask anyway, don't worry."

"Oh, there's no rush!" Stu said.

Tala elbowed him in the arm and gave him the stink eye.

"What my dad meant to say was you're welcome to call whenever you want Sammy!"

Sam chuckled.

"I'll remember that. Alright, well I have to get back to work. I'll see yous later.

"Bye Sammy!"

"Goodbye Mr. Sam."

With that, they hopped into their truck and drove off. Sam couldn't explain how he felt about that whole thing. He didn't want to admit it… not yet… but he was a wolf. That's how people saw him now. He still didn't like it but… at least he was comfortable.

" _I really am comfortable… aren't I?"_

Truth be told, the only thing about being an animal that he didn't like was the idea of it. Though he found he felt… more at home with his new body. That's not to say he ever felt uncomfortable in his human form but… something about being a wolf was… near fulfilling… if that made any sense. Maybe he was always a wolf inside and he just didn't know it?

Whatever the case, he still didn't like it.

* * *

Gideon had returned later that evening and gave Sam his paycheck for the week. The total amount that Sam had received was two hundred and eighty bucks.

"That's… damn, are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! Now take it. Ya earned it!"

"This is really just too much Gideon… I can't expect this!"

"What do ya mean it's too much? I payed you nine bucks and hour."

Sam's jaw dropped.

"The hell did you just say?"

"I said I went and paid ya nine bucks an hour…"

"That's…"

Then Sam remembered how much the things he had been selling all week usually sold for. He never noticed it before, but the rate of money between his world and The Burrows was _very_ different. It made sense too, why would Gideon give him nine dollars an hour?

He also found it funny that they used the term "bucks" to describe their currency but they didn't use "dollars". Just a little bit of information that would have saved him some trouble on his first day of work.

"Well… okay then. I have no idea what to spend it on though…"

"How 'bout some new britches? Them's ya got on are the only one's ya have right?"

"Yeah… I guess… oh don't I owe you rent too?"

Gideon raised his paw, gesturing for Sam to stop.

"You're my guest. Y'all's stay in my house is free. And I won't hear anythin' more on the topic."

"Gideon. Come on man."

"Ah ah ahh! No more! Now get going! Before they close!"

Sam wanted to argue but it seemed the fox had made up his mind. And nothing he could do would change it. So he nodded and walked out of the shop for the night.

"Thank you Gideon… really."

"Don't mention it partner! Do you need a lift? I know a good clothing shop 'round here."

"Na, think I'm gonna walk. Thanks anyway."

"No problem Sammy! Take care!"

Sam gave him a two fingered salute and walked out the door with a destination in mind.

* * *

He walked up to the quaint little clothing store he had visited a week earlier and walked through the door.

"Oh good evening darling!" The elderly ewe from last time greated Sam.

"Evening Miss."

He browsed for a time looking for a much more comfortable shirt then Gideon had given him. Though due to the fact that every shirt in the store, it seemed, had nothing but logos full of tourist junk plastered all over them he decided against buying one, for now.

Failing to find a shirt he would have actually wanted to wear, he looked over the pants. He found the section he had gotten the last ones from the last time he was here and pulled out four pairs he liked as well as a pair of baggy camouflage pants he also took a fancy to and draped them over his arm.

Being satisfied with what he had he made his way over to the counter where the old ewe was manning the register.

"Excuse me Miss, Do you have any plain shirts?"

"Of course dear! I just got a shipment yesterday. Would you like white or black?"

Sam thought for a moment.

"Black please."

She nodded and went into the back to go fetch what he had asked for and came out a minute later with a box which she then opened.

"How many would you like darling?"

"How much are they?"

"Five bucks a piece love."

Sam nodded.

"Could I get six of them, then?"

"Oh course you can!"

She pulled out six folded shirts and unfolded one and looked at it.

"I think that should be your size hun. Would you like to try one of them on?"

Sam took his shirt off and put one of the black T's on. To his relief the shirt was a near perfect size.

"Yeah that'll work fine!" He said.

"Um… okay darling… you wanted… six. Right?"

Sam noticed that she was staring at him with a weird look.

"You okay?" He asked her.

"Yeah… Oh, yeah! I'm fine darling! You just remind me of my late husband is all."

"Your… husband?"

She nodded and Sam became intrigued.

"Your husband was a wolf?"

"Yes. And what a wolf he was…" She replied, that last bit she said under her breath.

"Um… okay… well how much do I owe you?"

She ringed up everything and got a receipt ready.

"Eighty bucks hun."

Sam paid her and bid her goodnight.

"You have a goodnight to _darling_." She said with a weird smile.

At this point he was feeling a bit uncomfortable but stayed poker faced nonetheless. He walked out of the shop into the warm evening breeze while the sun painted the sky near blood red and walked along the streets towards Gideon's home.

* * *

He got home just as the last of the light was fading away and the stars had started to come out. He walked through the front door and was greeted by the warm smell of freshly baked pies they were planning on selling tomorrow.

"I'm back!" He called out.

"Hey Sam! Ya got a phone call while y'all were out" Gideon informed him from the kitchen.

Sam walked into the room and looked for Gideon who was crouched down by the bottom cupboards looking for something.

"A phone call?"

"Yeah from that one Hopps girl, Tala. She was wondering if y'all was free tomorrow. I told her I didn't need ya at the shop but I didn't know what y'all had planned."

"Oh, well if you don't need me then I guess I'm free tomorrow… could I call her back?"

"Sure thing! My phone is on the coffee table. I have her dad's number in my speed dial list."

" _Speed dial? The hell is that?"_

Sam walked out into the front room and looked on the coffee table. He didn't see a phone. Just an empty cup, the television remote, and one of those little metal slats that everyone seemed to have and love staring at.

"Um… I don't see your phone."

Gideon walked out and looked at the table. He raised his eyebrow and walked over to Sam and picked up the metal thing.

"It's right here…" He informed Sam.

"That's… that's a phone!?"

Sam was astonished. Sure they could shrink televisions down to be as thin as a door, but a phone!? There was just no way.

"Y'all don't know what a phone is?"

"I... have never seen one like that. How is that even possible!?"

Gideon shrugged.

"It just is. I never bothered with all this techno mumbo-jumbo. Do you know how to use this?"

Sam shook his head and Gideon went on to explain what this new piece of technology could do. All the while Sam couldn't believe his ears. It seemed there was nothing this little piece of metal couldn't do! Not to mention this new thing called the "internet". He was at a loss.

"Y'all really _aren't_ from 'round here arentcha?"

"Heh, that obvious huh?"

Gideon nodded and chuckled.

"Well, now that ya know how to call someone I'll let y'all call yer new friend." He stated and walked back into the kitchen.

Sam sat down on the couch and scrolled through the contacts list. He found one that said "Hopps" and tapped on it. It started ringing and after a while the phone picked up.

"Hello? This is Stu."

"Hey, Mr Hopps! It's Samuel. Could I speak to Tala?"

"Oh, sure. Let me go get her."

He could hear some yelling from the other end and after a minute or two he heard another voice.

"Hello?"

"Tala? It's me, Sam."

She gasped.

"Sammy, Hey! What's up? Are you doing anything tomorrow?"

"Nope, guess I'll be going to the fair with yous all after all."

He could here her shriek with joy from the other end, which made him laugh a bit.

"Oh yey! Oh we're going to have so much fun! I'll show you all over town and all my favorite spots!"

"Woah, calm down now. We haven't even figured out where we're gonna meet."

The line went silent for a bit.

"How about the front entrance to the fairgrounds? At nine thirty?"

"Sounds good."

He heard more shrieking and chuckled.

"I'll see you then Sammy!"

"You too Tala. Talk to you tomorrow."

"Alright, bye!"

"Bye."

Sam hit the big red button on the screen and hung up. He put the phone back on the table and sighed. Tomorrow was gonna be a long day. Hopefully fun though.

"So whatcha doin' tomorrow?"

"Apparently I'm going on a date…"

"With Tala?" Gideon asked and chuckled.

"Y'all best be wary. That lass is a live wire!"

"Jee, I couldn't tell." Sam joked sarcastically which made Gideon laugh.

"Just keep yer wits about ya and y'all be fine.

 **Hey everyone! I am so sorry I haven't posted anything in a while! I just haven't had a lot of reason to do it. Truth be told I was getting ready to just message everyone that was following and had favorites this story that I was planning on taking it down and completely re-doing it. Then I got another follower and I just said to myself, "I might as well just try to get this back on track as it is."**

 **So thank you guys so much for sticking with this! I can't tell you how happy I am! Well I can try to get this next chapter out soon (somewhere around in the next two weeks) but you guys know how I am at this point I guess.**

 **And I want to thank my new editor TheRedWolf27 for helping me with this chapter and for all the work he's gonna be doing** ** _very_** **soon lol.**

 **Anyway this is Fox signing off:**

 **Vi!**


	6. Chapter V: Fun Day Away From Home!

**Chapter V:**

 **Fun Day Away From Home!**

" _All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us"_

 _-Gandalf The Gray_

Early the next day Sam had eaten breakfast and was on his way out the door. He figured that it would take him at least an hour to walk all the way to the fair grounds by himself, so by that logic he had left an hour and a half before he was to meet up with Tala. He was excited, Sam had never been able to go to any fair or carnival his entire life, so doing something like this for the first time was absolutely exhilarating!

He walked through the streets filled with rabbits going each and every way, doing one thing or another. The sidewalk was crowded and the street was congested but Sam couldn't care less. He walked on while mammals greeted him with a friendly smile and a warm "g' morning!" or a simple "Hi!".

When he walked past the train station he stopped to watch as rabbits congested on the boarding platform. As the train pulled in and the doors opened he could hear yelling and cheering as family members stepped off the train to greet their families and enjoy the fair they were sure to go to. Apparently a lot of people would be coming this year which meant family from all over would be coming back home to celebrate with their loved ones. Sam was still a bit confused with how there could be so many rabbits and they all seemed to know each other fairly well.

He continued walking and made it to the fairgrounds an hour and forty minutes later. He tried his best to trudge through the sea of bunnies that were walking into the fair as he walked towards the arch that marked the entrance. Once there he spotted one particular bunny whom he knew.

Dressed in a light blue dress with skin tight black pants and standing near the ticket booth with her arms crossed and foot tapping was Tala.

"How long have you been waiting for me?"

She jumped and looked over at him.

"You're late!" She fumed.

"A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to." He replied.

Tala tilted her head in confusion.

"Whaa?"

Sam chuckled.

"Nothing… so what's the plan today?"

"Oh, well I was planning on taking you around the Burrows and showing you my favorite places!"

"Oh that sounds lovely! But… what about the fair?"

"Don't worry! The fairgrounds take up most of the farmland. After the harvest we celebrate by turning the fields into a fair! And this year is so big that we even had to put some of the booths along Greenway Avenue! So we can walk around the town and still have fun!"

Tala was at this point literally jumping up and down with excitement.

"Alright calm down!" Sam laughed. "You're gonna blow a gasket!"

Tala stopped jumping and giggled.

"Sorry… I don't have a lot of friends around here. You're the first wolf I've ever met and I'm really excited to show you all the places I like to hang out!"

Sam raised his eyebrow as he purchased the tickets and they walked into the fairgrounds.

"You don't have any friends? But this place is huge! How could you not have any friends?"

"Oh I have friends! It's just that I don't much care for a lot of the mammals here… they can be a bit two faced sometimes, even my own family."

"What do you mean 'two faced'?"

"Well… gossip spreads crazy here. If someone doesn't like you or thinks something bad of you all they have to do is say something mean and nasty about you to the right mammals. And soon after that mammals are gonna be talking about how you're really nasty and bad when most of the time it's not true at all… everyone does it."

"Eh… not sure I like the sound of that."

"You have to always be careful with what you do and say here. You could upset the wrong mammal and that would be it."

Sam had never dealt with something like what Tala had just described, and he was grateful that was the case. Though he always liked to give people the benefit of a doubt he felt like in a place like this gossip would be a big problem…

"I don't think I would want to be caught on the wrong side of someone then…"

"Oh don't worry Sam! Everyone has been saying good things about you all week! Stuff about stopping the Burrows Bandit, that must have been scary!"

" _Nowhere near as scary as the front."_ He thought to himself as he chuckled.

They walked along the road towards the inner part of the fair which housed all the food trucks and games. As they walked they couldn't help but look at all the amazing attractions that everyone seemed to advertise.

Tents had been erected with slogans painted in bold letters on pieces of wood. Some of them advertised things such as gifts or clothing. Some tents also were mini freak shows, places to go to see wild and crazy (and mostly fabricated) sights like "real unicorn horn!" or "Actual two headed snake!". Some of those even had announcers who sang what there was to see inside.

"COME ONE, COME ALL!" One cried. "COME AND SEE THINGS SO AMAZING YOU WON'T BELIEVE YOUR OWN EYES! FOR INSIDE ARE SIGHTS THAT WILL LEAVE YOU ASTONISHED! LIKE SKELETONS OF A NOW EXTINCT SPECIES OF APE THAT HAD RULED THE WORLD BEFORE OUR TIME HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF YEARS AGO!"

"That sounds interesting! You wanna go see what all the excitement is about Sam?"

"Na… it's all probably fake anyway, I know those guys' tricks."

"Oh… well if that's what it is then okay."

They walked on, heading for the games which they planned on winning.

* * *

"Come on Sam, you can do it!"

Sam threw the baseball and it hit it's mark, knocking down all three steel pins with ease. Sam stood back and stretched.

"WE HAVE A WINNER HERE! What would ya like son?"

Sam looked at the assorted stuffed toys that hung from hooks on the ceiling. He's eye roamed from a stuffed bunny to a yellow rat who for some reason had really red cheeks. He didn't know what to get so he got an idea.

"How about you pick, Tala?"

"Are you sure? You were the one who won."

"Hey, when I say I want to give you something, I want to give you something! Now pick!" He laughed.

Tala smiled and nodded. She looked for a minute before deciding she wanted a small, white, stuffed fox. The elderly rabbit who was running the game behind the counter nodded and got it off the peg it was attached to. He handed it to her and she hugged it fiercely.

"Thank you sir." Sam said.

"You're quite welcome son! Ya did a good thing, lettin' da little lass have da pick."

"Thank you Sammy! Oh I love it! It looks just like my friend Finnick!"

Sam chuckled at her enthusiasm. Gideon was right when he said Tala was a live wire. There was no stopping this girl when she was on a role.

"Come on Tala, let's go win some other games."

"Alright, thank you mister!"

"'av a good un lass! BOTTLE TOSS, BOTTLE TOSS! WINNER WITH EVERY THROW!"

They walked away, towards new games and adventures. They both had an itching to try the rollercoaster that had been erected near the middle of the fairgrounds. Even from a distance it didn't seem that big, at least to Sam. Not that it wasn't small either.

"How about the coaster?"

"Oh! I've always wanted to ride that, but I was always too little… Dad always said I would grow but every year I couldn't ride it, but I think I'm tall enough now!" She stated with a twinkle in her eye as she pumped her fists.

"It doesn't look that big to be honest…"

"That's because not a lot of mammals here like big scary things like roller coasters. They aren't the most popular ride in the fair but they do make a decent amount every year I heard."

"Eesh… Sounds boring. What do you guys do for fun then?"

"We usually just sit around and talk when no one is working the fields. Most rabbits don't like too much excitement, it makes them nervous."

Sam shrugged as they got in line. The wait wasn't too bad, as Tala had warned, not many mammals were waiting to get on the ride. Sam watched as the cart went by on its tracks and listened to the occupants of it scream their heads off as it passed.

"So I guess you're one of the few who likes excitement?"

Tala nodded happily and turned back to watch the coaster in action. She seemed to have literal stars in her eyes as she did. Sam could tell this was something she really wanted to do.

* * *

"You feeling okay?"

"Yeah… just… give me a sec…"

Tala panted as Sam sat with her on the bench. He had liked the ride okay, but Tala went in over her head it seemed. Even though she was grinning like a madman she had come close to vomiting several times during the ride.

"You know, if you had puked I wonder if you would have nailed someone?"

"Sam please!" She said as she laughed. "That would be horrible!"

"And funny."

"Gosh dang it you're right!"

They both broke out into laughter with Sam doing puking impressions and Tala letting loose. Honestly Sam was having a great day so far! After they had been able to control themselves Sam sat back and sighed.

"So what's your family like, Sam?"

Sam was taken aback by the question.

"Well… not much to say, really." He said truthfully. "I never knew my father and my mother and I lived on the street our whole lives. She was the only family I ever had, honestly."

"You used to live on the streets!? That's awful!"

"Well when poverty is all you know you don't realize that…"

"Well, what about your home?"

"Chicago?"

"Yeah, what's it like?"

Sam smiled.

"Nothing like this… that's for sure. Not a lot of friendly mammals."

"Sounds like the way Finnick talks about Zootopia a lot of the time, but my sister Judy said it's a very nice place!"

"Heh, your sister live there?"

"Yep! She's a police officer! She works for the main police station in precinct one!"

"Sounds tough."

"My big sis can handle anything! She's so cool… you have to meet her soon!"

"I think I will. That sounds lovely Tala!" He chuckled.

"Yay, but you're gonna have to wait though. She's on vacation."

"Where'd she go?"

"I don't remember… some place up north she said. It was a paid vacation too. She said it was a thank you gift from the new mayor. Apparently she was given it because of her work on the nighthowler thingy."

"'Nighthowler thingy'?"

"A couple months ago the mayor Dawn Bellwether was using this flower to make predators go crazy. We call them nighthowlers around here. Judy busted her and locked her up."

"I think I really want to meet this 'Judy' you speak so fondly of!"

"She's amazing! I want to he just like her one day!"

"Well it sounds like living to achieve that goal wouldn't be a waste."

* * *

As the sun began to set and everyone was going home for the night Sam decided that the day was over and it was time to take Tala home.

"Oh but can we please just play one more game? Please!"

"You said that three games ago! And besides, I got no more dough left darling!"

Tala looked sad but she nodded anyway.

"Well… okay. Thank you Sam! I had fun today."

"I did too. Now how do we get to your house from here?"

"Oh that's easy! My house is the one past that big oak tree! You see that barn over there?"

Sam looked towards the direction she was pointing and saw a gigantic red barn about three hundred yards away. Also, true to her word, there was a big oak tree in between them and the building.

"That's my dad's barn. It took us almost ten months to build! Most of the older children help out with but I helped bring everyone snacks while they worked!" Tala beamed.

"Alright, guess I should walk you home huh?"

Tala thought for a moment.

"Are you going home?"

"I got nothing else to do" He shrugged.

She thought for a minute and then her face lit up suddenly.

"You could come and have dinner with us!"

Sam didn't know what to say. He didn't want to be rude but he also didn't want to bother her family any more than he already had. Though Tala was a bit persistent, he had come to find out earlier. He decided he'd better just do what she wanted.

"Alright, I'm in."

"Yes! Come on, I'll race ya!"

"You would lose!" He smiled.

"In your dreams!"

Sam bolted towards the farm, leaving Tala in the dust. After the initial shock she followed suit and raced towards her home. Sam was fast but Tala, it seemed, was faster. Soon she overtook him and made distance. Though after about four minutes or so she started to tire. Sam caught up and before long and it was Tala who was the one chasing a dust cloud after that.

Sam made it to the front porch of the house and leaned on the railing to catch his breath. Tala arrived not a minute later, panting just as hard as Sam.

"I… _pant,_ beat you!"

"You had, _pant_ , an advantage!"

"Cry me a river then, _pant,_ I still won!" He laughed in between breaths.

The house was huge, even for a wolf. The front of it was cut out into the shape of a rabbit facing forward and it extended backwards a good hundred yards and the porch alone, which wrapped around the side of the house too, could probably hold half a football field, easy.

"You have a really big house…"

"Oh we have to! I have a lot of brothers and sisters."

"I can see that…" Sam replied as he watched rabbits of every age and shape run in, out, and around the house. Some were walking in packs, talking about this or that while others walked with a more urgent purpose it seemed.

"The harvest might be over but we still have to get the fields ready for planting soon." Tala explained as she saw Sam watch her older siblings run out to the field.

"They're probably just going to go get all the tools ready for tomorrow before they eat, if they already haven't."

"Are we late for dinner?"

"Oh, no don't worry! Our family is so big that it's impossible to all sit down together and eat at certain times. We all eat when we feel like it."

"Oh well… that's good to know. You must run the cooks in the family ragged though!" Sam laughed.

Tala giggled and ran into the house with Sam following close behind her. He walked in and his jaw dropped.

The house seemed to be _much_ bigger from the inside, and that was saying something! He had stepped on to a huge balcony that overhung the main front room. There were dozens of couches, recliners, sofas, and coffee tables, all facing towards a wall filled with huge mounted televisions.

He had trouble focusing on the masses of rabbits that walked every which way. To Sam it looked like a sea of fur and ears. There were huge arched hallways that branched off from the main room to the right and left. And there was a staircase to Sam's left and right that led into the front room from the balcony. There was even a huge skylight that filled the room with the golden rays of the evening.

"This is…"

"Incredible?"

"Yeah! How… how did you know-"

"You were gonna say that? My friends had visited once and they both had the same reaction." She giggled.

"This is amazing… how long does it take you guys to build something like this?"

"A year… the worst part was digging all this out to make all these rooms!"

Sam couldn't believe his ears. All week these strange animals had astonished him over and over with feets that the human race wasn't anywhere near accomplishing!

"I just can't believe my eyes…"

"Well believe it! Now come on, I'm hungry!"

Tala bolted off down the stairs with a smile and Sam tried to follow without running over anyone in the process. He followed the little gray ball of energy down the left hallway and into the dining room.

The room was taken up by a large, slowly rotating, round table which could easily fit a hundred people. On the far end there was a line congesting in front of a counter full of entrees. Soups and salads took up most of the food that could be found but there were some things such as carrot cake, apple pie, quiche, and other foods of similar caliber.

Sam grabbed a plate and got in line. He towered over everyone else so he had to bend low to get to the food he wanted to add to his plate. He got a small salad, some green bean casserole, and a slice of pie.

"Hey Sam, over here!"

He looked over to where he heard his name be called out and saw Tala waving frantically towards him from the left hand side of the huge table. So he walked over and sat himself on the area of the bench she had cleared for him.

"Your family is something else…"

"I get that alot from others. Especially if they don't live here."

She started to dig in as Sam sat down. He took a bite of his salad and smiled.

" _She's already halfway done. And Gideon said_ I _ate fast!"_

* * *

After they finished their food Tala had offered Sam to stay the night.

"Tala, eating dinner is one thing but I can't stay the night. Gideon might get worried and wonder where I'm at. Not to mention your parents!"

"My mom and dad don't care if my friends stay the night! Finnick and Nick stay over all the time and they're cool with it!"

"Yeah well how long have you known them, Tala?"

She thought for a second.

"About a year or so now…"

"And you only met me yesterday. I'm sorry Tala but I gotta get home."

"Aw… well okay. I had fun today Sam. Thank you."

"I did too Tala. And you're welcome anytime!"

Sam stood at attention and saluted her, then walked off the porch and down the dirt driveway.

"Bye Sam! See you soon!"

He turned around and waved. Then he continued down the road and towards home.

* * *

 **Dear Lord writing this took too long :/ I am so sorry guys! Between the lack of will to write this and irl shit iv had a pretty busy couple of months. Though I swear that I planned on releasing this on New Year's Day but my editor wasn't around so I didn't write it all that day. Well with that aside I would like to wish you all a Merry belated Christmas and a happy New Year! I will try to get to the next chapter as soon as possible but now I think I'm gonna stick to not promising shit. You guys know me by now.**

 **Thank you again TheRedWolf27 for your amazing edits! Also I would like to thank you all for keeping up with .y bullshit! XD**

 **Anyway, this is Fox signing off:**

 **Vi!**


	7. Chapter VI: The Real Beginning

**Chapter VI: The** _ **Real**_ **Beginning…**

" _Good people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."_

 _~George Orwell_

About two months had passed and Sam was still there helping Gideon. He had wondered time and time again when something new and interesting would happen but nothing had come up. He was beginning to think that this might be his life now. What made matters even worse was now his nightmares had taken on a new face.

Every night now for the past two weeks he had startlingly real visions of his mother. The first nightmare he watched as a silent spirit as his mother was approached by two men in uniform.

" _We regret to inform you Ms. Ren that your son has died in battle…"_

She had stood there for a minute just staring at the men before finally collapsing and sobbing. Sam had tried to comfort her but as he drifted closer and tried to embrace her in a hug and tell her that he was alive and okay, his hand had passed right through her.

Another night he had watched his funeral. The casket was of dark oak, brightly shining. He had never thought that he would have such a nice funeral as he watched in awe. They laid the casket down into the grave and had soldiers present arms as they honored the fallen medic. He watched as they awarded the purple heart of bravery and the medal of honor to his mother, whom took the offerings solemnly.

He would wake up in a cold sweat after each nightmare. Ever since he had gotten here his dreams had taken on a more… he had trouble describing it. They seemed more real, less harmless, and definitely deeper than before. With everything that had happened to him the past couple of months, he wouldn't have doubted it if he found out that they probably weren't even _dreams_ at all!

" _None of this makes any sense! What is going on here? Why am I here? Why am I not dead?"_

These were the thoughts that had plagued him ever since he had arrived to this strange new world of Andora. He could never seem to shake these thoughts as everything he saw, every new day they jogged them back into the front of his mind.

* * *

The day was clear and warm. Mammals buzzed around with all the intent in the world to do this or that and Sam had been trying to study more of this strange new world for the past few weeks. He had bought an Atlas and had studied it vigorously. The continents were different, but this hardly surprised him. This world seemed to be made up of one giant continent with smaller island nation's surrounding it. The people called this "Pangea".

He sat there at one of the tables, studding the book he had borrowed from the local library while Gideon worked in the kitchen. He frowned at the content within as most of it he wasn't expecting to be there.

"Civilization as a whole has only been around for the past two hundred years. But the sentient mindset of mammals can be dated back far longer than that by at least five centuries the experts say."

" _So that's why the year is only two sixty something…"_

He thought on this. If civilization was only so young then how had they advanced so quickly? It defied near all logic and reasoning. Surely there was more to it then that.

The bell to the door rang and Sam looked up. He smiled as he recognized the rabbit that had walked in. There stood Felix Fuzzbottom, wearing a black and white vertical striped long sleeve shirt and black dress pants. His eyes landed on Sam who gave him a friendly wave from his seat.

"How've ya been Felix?" Sam greeted him enthusiastically.

Once he saw Sam he tensed up a bit and waved back.

"Hi Sam… I've been fine. Just here to get a cake for my family…"

Sam closed his book, got up, and walked behind the counter on the other end of the building.

"Well you're money is just as good as anyone else's! Unless of course it _isn't_ your money…" Sam joked.

Felix seemed to become more stressed than before at Sam's little inside joke. So he laughed to try and get the kids to calm down.

"Ah I'm sure you got it fairly! No need to shit your pants!" He laughed.

"I… sorry… it's… it's just that-"

"I'm a big, bad, scary wolf that beat you up once?"

Felix stayed quiet for a minute and Sam sighed.

"Look kid, I said it before and I'll say it again. I'm not gonna hurt ya. I promise."

Sam thought he saw him relax just a bit as he nodded and pulled out a piece of paper from his right hand pocket.

"My mom told me to get a carrot cake for my brother's birthday party today… Do you guys have carrot cake?"

"We sure do!" Gideon piped up as he exited the kitchen while drying his hands on his apron.

"We have the best baking this side of the tri-burrows!"

"No need for the dramatic entrance Gideon." Sam chuckled. "I'm just gonna ring 'em up for a large carrot cake. Is that okay?"

"Sure thing, Sam! I'll go box it up fer' him!".

Gideon walked back into the kitchen to go get the order ready as Sam punched in the info on the register.

"Okaaay… that will be thirty five bucks, Felix."

The boy nodded and fished out the same wallet Sam had thrown away from him that one night. He chuckled, remembering what had happened that night as he was handed the money.

"You still seem uneasy…" Sam noted as Felix seemed as stiff as a statue while he handed the wolf the money.

"I'm… I'm sorry."

"... How about we go take a walk?"

"Huh?"

"A walk. I can help deliver the cake you just got to wherever you want it to go and we can talk on the way there. I feel like there might be room for improvement in our relationship here, kid."

Felix still seemed nervous but nodded. Content, Sam put the money in the register and handed Felix a receipt. Gideon walked out of the back carrying a white box with a beautifully frosted carrot cake inside.

"Here y'all go now! Don't drop it!" The fox joked.

"I'll be the one carrying it, Gideon. He wants me to help deliver it."

Gideon looked over at Sam, then at Felix. He noticed that Sam was more suited to handle the big box as the cake was as big as Felix's torso. He nodded and gave the box to Sam.

"Alright now don't drop it or it's on you! Ya hear?"

"Yes sir!" Sam saluted.

He took the box and walked towards the door as Felix held it open for him. He nodded to him as the walked out into the little parking lot and down the sidewalk towards the more residential part of the town.

"So… how have ya been holding up kid?"

"Not too bad… my friends think I'm a wuss for backing out of… of what I was doing…"

"We're they the ones who convinced you to start doing what you were doing in the first place?"

Felix nodded solemnly.

"You shouldn't have given into what they wanted. Whatever it was that they wanted from you they got."

"I know… but they're so big and scary! I probably couldn't have said no even if I tried to. They kept calling me a wuss. They said I was too much of a scardy pants to do anything really exciting."

"And giving in to people like that only makes it worse ya know." Sam chided.

Felix seemed to have trouble looking Sam in the face as he hung his head low while they walked. Sam sighed and tried to think of something to say to the kid but came up empty. It seemed Felix knew what he was signing up for when he agreed to whatever these guys had asked of him… even though it seemed the boy never wanted to have anything to do with these individuals.

* * *

A couple of hours later they had arrived at Felix's house. It was built similar to the Hopps' house save that it was a bit smaller. Felix led him around to the back which had been fenced off and opened the gate for Sam to come in.

Around back there were white folding tables and party decorations such as colorful balloons and ribbons. Rabbits ran around every which way trying to get the party ready while Felix directed Sam towards a table with an ice statue of a bunny in a business suit. Sam would have had to guess the statue represented whoever's birthday it was.

"Your brother?" Sam asked after he put the box on the table, referring to the ice statue.

"Yeah, Finley… My big brother."

"The one who kept you from going to jail over what you did?"

Felix nodded, finding the ground very interesting for some reason.

"He seems like a pretty good brother then." Sam nodded. "So where is he?"

"He left before I went to go get the cake to pass out all the invitations. He should be back soon."

"This party was his idea?"

"No, my mom is making him do it. She said he spends too much time at work and with girls and he should spend more of it with his family. So she's putting this together so we can be with him a bit more than usual."

Sam chuckled at Felix's explanation.

"Well that sounds alright! So how many are coming today?"

"Well counting me and my twenty other brothers and sisters about a hundred or so…"

Sam looked at him then at the cake he had brought.

"You're gonna need a lot more cake than this then…"

"Oh we ordered more. They're on their way… this cake is for Finely and the older ones. They like Gideon's food better than any of the other places in the Burrows."

Just then the back gate opened and in came a tall buck with a nice black suit. Everyone greeted him with loving "Hi"s and "Happy birthday!". He waved at them all and spotted Felix and Sam.

Sam nodded respectfully and Felix waved shyly. Finely walked over to them and examined the statue.

"I told her I didn't want this…" He sighed. "Oh, where are my manners!? Finely Fuzzbottom, at your service!"

He held out his law towards Sam who took it and shacked heartily.

"Samuel Ren, pleasure to meet ya Finely!"

"So _you're_ the one who set my brother straight! I'm grateful Sam." He said while giving Felix a little smile. The boy seemed to shrink a little more when he noticed the look on his brother's face.

"Aw it's okay. The kid didn't do much harm anyway. Happy birthday by the way."

"Thank you. Though what's happening here is kind of blowing everything out of proportion. Not much to celebrate, really… Honestly I would just be relaxing if my mother hadn't insisted on all this." He gestured to everything around him.

"Well that just means you have a loving family if they're willing to throw you a birthday party!"

"Well I suppose you're right. Well in any case, I'm grateful for what you had done to turn my little brother away from the wrong side of the law. In fact, would you be willing to join us today?"

"Well… when would you be starting this little festival?"

"Well it just so happens that we'll be starting here in about five minutes or so!"

Sam thought for a minute.

"Well… I suppose Gideon can get along without me long enough for me to have some cake I guess!" He smiled.

"I would be honored if you would join us Samuel. Felix, go and get mom and tell her I'm gonna get this started."

"Yes sir."

* * *

"And finally, I would like to thank Mr. Ren for helping my brother find the right way in life!" Finely said as he raised his glass of wine in a toast.

Everyone cheered and Sam raised his drink in response. There was roughly eighty people at the party, lower than Felix's estimate but still an impressive number. Finely stepped down from the table he had been standing on as he addressed each of his friends and family and thanked them all for what they had done for him in the past. He walked over to Sam and nodded.

"I would be honored if you would join me and my brothers and sisters for cake, Sam."

"It would be a pleasure."

Sam got up from the table he was leaning on and followed Finley as he walked over to the cake Sam had delivered as five rabbits had pulled it out of the box and we're getting ready to cut it.

"So what exactly happened that night with my brother?" Finely asked.

"Well… he came at me with a little knife and I just defended myself."

"He was armed?" Finely asked, surprised.

"I took the knife away from him. If you're gonna get mad at him then it's no use by the way. He seemed to have learned his lesson."

"Yes." Finely sighed. "I'm aware of that… I just can't understand what possessed the poor boy into doing something like that."

"He told me on the way here that-"

"FELIX! GET YOUR TAIL OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Everyone turned to see who had yelled. There were three mammals, two Rams and a male deer with a good set of antlers, standing near the gate to the backyard and making their way in. They were all similarly dressed in dark jeans and black T-shirts. Sam looked around for Felix who was cowering behind a table at the far side of the property.

"What seems to be the trouble gentleman?" Finely asked the three.

"None of your business, rich boy! Now your brother better get his sorry behind out here before we start TEARING THIS PLACE UP!" The dear responded.

"And why, pray tell, would he do that?" Sam asked, getting rather annoyed at how brash and bullish these brutes were acting.

"You'd better keep out of this buddy!... Hey… aren't you that one wolf that beat him up?" One of the two rams asked.

"Maybe… what's it to you?"

The deer chuckled. "Felix, you're a wuss for letting this mangy pred boss you 'round! Now where's our money!?"

"I-I… I don't have it!" Felix piped up, completely terrified.

"If it's money you men are after then I would be happy to give you what my brother has owed."

"We don't want your money ya dirty pred chasing orphan! Your brother promised us at least five hundred bucks and we ain't gonna let him wuss out of his promises!"

Sam stepped up to the deer and smiled.

"Since you guys seem to be retarded I'm gonna try and make this as clear as possible. **You better leave… before there's trouble…"**

The three backed up a bit, clearly intimidated but either too stupid or too proud to show show it… " _Probably both."_ Sam had thought.

"Or what, ya filthy chomper?"

"Well…" Sam chuckled. "I _was_ gonna let you off with a warning… but now… now I'm gonna feed ya your **fuckin'** teeth."

"... Heh… nice try but y-"

Sam grabbed the deer by the antlers and pulled down. He brought his knee up and struck his foe in the face hard. He let go and watched as the buck stumbled off, falling to the ground, and holding his face while yelling in pain. The two rams stood in shock at what just happened. They turned to Sam and growled (metaphorically speaking).

"You're dead, chomper."

"Come get some, cunts."

Sam took a fighting stance and the rams started to circle him. Everyone backed up and most of the young ones followed their mothers inside. Finely back away slowly, perplexed as what was about to happen would have been the most interesting thing he had seen all day. Felix was still behind the table and was shaking violently in terror. The poor kid couldn't help but think that this was all his fault.

"You bastards just gonna dance around me like a bunch of fags? Or are you actually gonna fight?' Sam asked, trying to keep an eye on both of them as they looked of any sort of weak spot in his defenses.

One of the rams, enraged at Sam's comment, charged him. Sam sidestepped away from his attack and struck him in the nose as he passed. The ram tripped over his own hooves and came crashing down, but this gave the other ram the opportunity to get behind the wolf and put him in a choke hold.

Sam struggled against the strength of the ram as his partner got up. He had a bloody nose from where the soldier had hit him. He groaned as he got to his feet and walked over to the two. Sam knew what was coming but couldn't do anything about it as he was helpless for now.

The first ram started socking Sam in the stomach. With each punch a new wave of pain shot up Sam as he struggled against the second goon. He finally brought his head down and quickly shot up, headbutting him in the face with the back of his head. The second ram staggered but only loosened his grip slightly but the first ram only continued with his assault.

Sam used the second ram for leverage as he brought both his legs up and kicked the first ram in the face as hard as he could. The blow sent the brute tumbling down to the ground. He lay there, completely still. Sam head-butted the second ram again and this time he managed to hit him hard enough to make him let go. Sam staggered away and faced the man. He had a bloody face and looked furious.

" _Why am I fighting like a man? I'm a wolf now!"_

Sam got on all fours and growled menacingly.

" **Last chance to back off, fucker!"**

He snorted and charged Sam. As soon as he made it mid way Sam bolted to the left of him and bounded towards the rams side. They collided and Sam put the ram in a choke hold. They struggled for a bit as Sam squeezed harder and ha and eventually the ram went still. Sam let go and got up.

Nothing much had been damaged by the fight, except maybe Sam's guys. He figured that he would have a couple new bruises by tomorrow. He looked around at his handy work. Two unconscious mammals lay broken and defeated on the ground, both sustaining heavy damage to their faces.

" _Wait… where's-"_

"SAM BEHIND YOU!" Felix screamed.

He turned only just too late as he felt a jabbing pain shoot up from his gut. He looked into the grinning face of the deer he had first fought and then down to the knife that was embedded hilt deep into his stomach. Blood had started to poor as the deer let go and Sam tumbled to the ground in agony.

"Take that! You filthy pred!"

 _Swish_.

The assailant's face contorted in shock and then went slack. He fell face first into the ground with a small dart sticking out of the back of his neck. Felix and Finely ran towards Sam who still had the blade in his torso and knelt beside him.

"Welp… that could have gone better…" Sam said through gritted teeth.

"Sam… oh… oh Sam! I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry Sam! Please be okay!" Felix begged as he knelt besides the wolf and cried.

Finely looked towards the gate where there stood a fox wearing a blue uniform and a sheriff hat.

"Someone call an ambulance!" Robin yelled.

Finely nodded as he pulled out his phone and called 911. Robin ran up to Sam and holstered his tranquilizer, he knelt besides the young wolf who was cringing in pain and trying to keep his breaths steady.

"Seems every time I turn around here y'all are causing a whole lot a ruckus!" Robin joked. "Should we pull the knife out?"

"No!" Sam said and grunted.

"No… I'll just…" He gasped in pain. He honestly felt like shit and his vision was starting to go blurry.

"I'll just bleed out faster."

"... What do we do then, son?" Robin asked.

"Ap-... Apply pressure to the wound with something absorbent."

By now everyone had gathered around the wolf and Finely had finished calling an ambulance. Felix weeped over Sam as Robin took off his shit and held it around the wound.

"Push down slightly…"

Robin did what Sam asked and watched as he gasped again.

"Ffffffuck! Oh fuck that hurts!"

"Just stay with us, son. You'll make it out of here." Robin's paws we're now covered in blood. The stuff seemed to seep through the cloth and cover everything.

"Yeah… I'm… I'm feeling a bit dizzy… I'm losing too much blood."

"Just hold it together Sam." Finely said.

"I… I…" Sam's voice was barely over a whisper now.

"What was that?" Robin asked.

"I don't want to die again…"

Sam's world went black.

* * *

Paramedics had arrived just moments later. They fixed the wolf up as best they could before loading him up into the back of the ambulance. They sped off with flashing lights and a wailing siren.

"Well… shit…" Finely stated as he stood next to the sheriff

"You think you have it bad? I have three unconscious bullies, one of whom I'm gonna have to charge with attempted homicide, and one fatality wounded immigrant on my paws!" Robin said.

"Yeah… but this was supposed to be a happy day. My mom had been working on this for weeks now."

Robin chuckled.

"Shit happens, son. If your mother has learned anything from raising twenty children it would be that."

Finely sighed.

"Did you hear what he said, Robin?"

"Hm?"

"About… about not wanting to die… _again_ … you don't think-"

"No I don't _think_ … I know."

"So… so he's a human!"

"Yes."

"How long have you known?!""

"I've known for a couple of weeks now. I knew there was something off with that boy so I checked his citizenship application. He said he was from 'Chicago'."

The fox chuckled.

"I haven't been in the States for almost twenty six years"

"Have you told the others yet?"

"No… not yet… I wanted to let the boy figure it out for himself."

"Well… what now?"

"We wait… that's the only thing we can do, son"

He ruffled the fur on top of Finely's head and walked off.

"Aren't you gonna help clean this up?" Finely asked

"It ain't my mess kid!" Robin replied as he hopped into his police cruiser and headed for the station with three unconscious criminals in the back, all pawcuffed.

* * *

 **Welp, since I'm heading off on holiday for then next week I wanted to do this now.**

" **Now Kami," you might ask, "Since your update schedule is so messed up, why are you worried about posting this before you'll be gone only for the next four or five days with no internet access of any kind?" Well dearest reader, I'll tell you! It's just an excuse to make me work just a bit harder! Ah hahahahaha!**

 **But seriously, I'm posting this now because I'm not gonna be able to for the next five days, even though five days isn't that long for me when it comes to updates for this story. Hell, I've put you guys through much longer waits haven't I? Hah!**

 **Anyway, onto the special thanks! Nothing new here but I still think I have to say it anyway, thank you Red! Your beta reading skills keep this story afloat lol.**

 **And thank you all for all your patience and understanding. Without all of you I wouldn't feel the need to keep at this and for that I thank you all who have favorited and are following. As to everyone who's gonna fav and follow in the future I shall thank you all now.**

 **Also, let's see something here. If any of you could spread the word and recommend this story to a friend, group, or partner you think might be interested in this then please do! The more people that favorite and follow this the more popular it will get on FanFiction and that means that if someone goes and searches for the most favorited or followed story in the Zootopia category than mine is sure to pop up! Let's see if we can get up there everyone!**

 **Though even if you don't share this and are just here for the story I still thank you nonetheless. Thank you all.**

 **This is Fox signing off:**

 **Vi!**


	8. Chapter VII: To Laugh off Pain

**Chapter VII: To Laugh off Pain**

" _Scars are proof that you were stronger then what had tried to hurt you…"_

Sam opened his eyes reluctantly. He half expected, with everything he could remember, that all of hell would jump at him if he did. With the way he felt he could probably guess that that's where he was anyway.

He figured that it was a good run. Another chance, gone just as quickly as the first one was taken from him. Two or so months of almost nothing and with nothing to show for his first run… Though he opened his eyes anyway. He figured that what was going to happen would happen and he braced himself for what was sure to come.

To his surprise he didn't see flames, nor hear the screaming of the poor, damned souls that were sure to be there. He didn't smell the smoke or the sulfur. All he saw was light. A bright light that hurt his eyes. He shut them quickly and felt his body out. His side hurt like nothing he had ever felt and he was fairly sore all over.

He opened his eyes again, this time slowly. The light subsided until he noticed he was looking up at a ceiling with pipe lights that were causing the uncomfortable amount of glare. He looked over to his left and saw some sort of box that kept beeping and to his left was a window and a few chairs.

Tala sat in the one closest to the window. She lay sleeping with her head laying on Felix's shoulder who sat in the middle chair, his head lolled back with eyes closed and mouth gaped open in sleep. The last chair that sat in the corner held Robin, who was reading some sort of newspaper. The fox looked up once he heard Sam stir and acknowledged him with a nod.

"You made front line news, son. Seems you love bein' in that there spotlight." Robin said with a chuckle.

"What happened?" The wolf asked. "How long have I been out?"

"About a day… Just what were you thinking anyway? You know how much paperwork I had to fill out?" The vulpine replied with a bit of an annoyed tone.

Sam sighed and closed his eyes again.

"I guess I wasn't thinking…"

"You were lucky, Sam. The doctor said that if he hit any lower he would've hit yer liver."

"I was thinking that."

Robin turned back to his newspaper and snapped the paper straight as he read out loud.

" **Vigilante Wolf strikes again! Taking a knife in the name of Justice**!"

Robin laughed a bit and Sam groaned.

"What happened to those three?" Sam asked

"On a bus, heading for Zootopia Penitentiary as we speak."

"Already?"

"The law works fast when murder is involved here, son."

"They never killed me though…"

"It was attempted murder. They got life actually. A fair bit more than they deserved. If it were up to me I would have hanged 'em…"

Robin's tone seemed to get a tad darker on that last bit, Sam had noticed.

"You… hang peo-... mammals here?"

"No… but damn it I wish we did."

"Sammy?"

He turned to see Tala looking wide-eyed at him as the little bunny started to tear up.

"Oh Sam!"

She jumped out of her seat as fast as lightning and ran to the side of the bed, which hung low enough to the ground for her ears to poke up from the railing. She jumped up and used her momentum to throw herself onto the bed next to the wolf's leg. She crawled up to Sam without upsetting his wound and hugged his neck as she sobbed.

"Hey now… it's okay. I'm okay." He tried to reassure her.

His efforts were futile as she kept crying and squeezing his neck.

"Mr. Sam?"

He turned again to see Felix rubbing his left eye as he used the other one to give the wolf an unsure look.

"Hey, Felix… you okay?"

The young rabbit looked away in shame as Tala continued to cry, though not as intensely as before. He turned to Robin with a look that said " _Could you please help me out here!?"_

The old fox chuckled as he put down the newspaper he was reading and took his phone out of his pocket. He dialed a number and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hey, son. Sam's awake… Yeah I'll tell 'em."

Robin hung up and put the phone away. He picked the newspaper back up and flicked it straight.

"Gideon said he'll be 'ere in a minute."

"Oh, great. Another mammal to cry at the sight of me." He joked.

Tala let go of Sam's neck and looked at him. Her eyes were puffy and she was sniffling profusely. She looked like someone close to her had died.

"They said that you could have died, Sammy! I don't want you to die! You're my friend and I love you! You can't die!"

"Hey, hey, hey! I'm not gonna die!" He chuckled. "I'm sure the doc said something like 'I'm one lucky something or other.' and said I'll pull through. You don't have to worry now!"

He smiled at her as she rubbed her eyes and straddled his chest.

"We were all scared, Sammy… " _sniff"_ Sheriff Robin said you'll be fine but my dad said you wouldn't last the night." She cried.

"But here I am. I'm not dead yet and I don't feel like I'm dying… barely." He joked.

"You sure like to make fun of your predicament, son." Robin noted as he turned a page in his reading material.

"Better to laugh at it then cry… am I right?"

He gently put his hand under Tala's chin and gave her a reassuring nod. She sniffed and nodded as well, eyes still puffy and red, her lip and nose quivering in fear of the thought of losing her now best friend. Felix shifted uncomfortably and Sam looked at him.

"Am I right, Felix?"

He smiled warmly. Sam didn't blame the kid for what happened. In fact he was proud of the way he… _sorta_ stood up to the bullies. Though he knew full well what the little bunny was thinking and it wasn't relief that the wolf had forgiven him. In fact, it was the exact opposite for the exact opposite reason. Felix still felt guilty and thought that Sam was just too polite to admit that the attack was his fault. Worst of all he felt indebted to the wolf.

"I'm s-sorry… Mr. Sam… if there's any way I can make it up to you… you just need to tell me. I promise I'll do whatever you want!" He begged.

"Hmmmm… Anything I want?" Sam thought aloud.

"Anything. Just name it!"

"Alright. Stay in school. Study hard. Don't do any drugs you don't have to take. And don't do anything you know you shouldn't do, no matter what." The wolf smiled.

Felix started nodding his head so fast that he was afraid it would shoot off and go out the window. Just then the door opened and Gideon walked in. He brought the sweet aroma of fresh baked blueberry pie with him as he carried one in his arms.

"Hey, Sammy… ya feeling alright?"

"Feel like shit, but I'm still kicking, boss!" Sam gave him a thumbs up and a smile as he joked.

"That's good 't hear… hey pa."

Robin looked up from the news and nodded at his son in respect. Gideon put the pastry on the table next to Sam, opposite from the machine that was still beeping.

"So… what happened, Sam?"

"I got it all on video." Felix piped up.

The young buck handed Gideon his phone and Tala looked over curiously.

"You never said you recorded it…" She noted.

"I know… I didn't want to… to…"

"It's okay, kid. We understand." Sam reassured him. He looked down in shame at what he had caused, unintentionally, and Gideon played the video.

It had captured near everything, save near the end. From the time that the buck deer opened the ball to the point where Felix had shouted his warning the fight had lasted less than five minutes. That was five minutes it took the young wolf to fend off three scumbags to end with him taking a knife in the gut. Tala had laid down on Sam with her face buried in his neck fur as they all listened to the audio that played from the device, ending with Felix shouting at Sam to look out.

"Damn…" That was all Gideon could say.

"I… I…" Felix muttered… then the kid broke down in tears.

"Hey, kid. Come here for a minute." Sam asked. His tone soft and understanding.

The rabbit compiled and walked over slowly. His nose was quivering and his eyes had started to turn red. He grabbed the side of the bed and jumped up enough to sit on the edge.

"Listen. I'm proud of you, Felix."

The young buck looked up with confusion on his face. He had probably been expecting to get lashed with harsh words and a lecture. He hadn't expected this.

"If you hadn't spoken up I could be dead right now. Thank you, Felix. He could have hit me anywhere he wanted if I hadn't turned around. You saved my life, kid."

"But… but I caused that situation in the first place." He complained, sadly.

"I understand why you feel that way, but we all make mistakes. Hell, I've made so many _major_ mistakes that you could live five lifetimes without making as many… I understand what you're feeling right now, and I also understand that it isn't your fault necessarily."

Felix sniffed and wiped his nose. Sam reached up and ruffed the top of his head up slightly. The movement sent painful protests from the sore mussels that made up his arm with the movement, but he was used to the pain in a way. Boot camp was about as bad in his opinion.

"Well… I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, kid."

"Well… now that we've said all 'r sorries and whatnot… I'm fixing myself 't have me some of them there pie Gideon brought!' Robin said as he got up and put the newspaper down on his seat, folded.

"Tell ya what, son. Y'all go get us some plates and forks and I'll parden ya." The old fox said to the rabbit with a wink.

Felix nodded and hopped off the bed. He walked to the door and hurried off to go fetch what the sheriff had asked him to get. Sam brought his hand up to Tala who still laid there hugging his neck. He brought his hand up to her head and petted her for a while. She sniffled quietly as she hugged him, less vigorously than before.

"I was so scared, Sammy…"

"I know… I'm sorry, Tala. I couldn't let those guys get away with what they were gonna do."

By that time Gideon and his father we're conversing quietly with themselves in the corner. Neither of the two raised their voices over a whisper but Sam thought that he saw Robin shake his head in disappointment.

"What did Sheriff Robin mean when he said he wanted to hang the three that wanted to kill you?"

Sam looked back to Tala who had stopped hugging Sam and was now sitting on her knees on the side of the bed next to his chest. The two stopped their conversation suddenly and stared at her, Gideon with horror and Robin with concern.

"Well… um… it means… uh… it means nothing hunny." He answered her with a forced smile. He could tell she knew there was more than what he had given her though, and had a look of determination on her face.

" _This never ends well…"_

"Sheriff Robin? What did you mean when you said you wanted to hang the three that hurt Sammy?"

Robin sighed and looked at her with a sorrowful look on his face.

"Pa, don't you **dare** tell 'er! She's just a kit! She don't need to know that stuff!"

"Better she learned now, son. She should know. She's a lot smarter than ya would think. I reckon she would find out on her own eventually anyway."

The Sheriff took in a deep breath and looked as though he was going to have to do something very unpleasant. And from Sam's standpoint that's exactly what he was going to do.

"A hangin' is something where ya tie a special knot on the end of a good, thick rope called a noose, young lady. A noose is sort of like a necklace of sorts, ya rap it around someone's neck. You use this rope to strangle mammals to death with… the reason why they call it a hangin' is because ya usually tie it to an overhanging branch in a tree or a post overhang. You hang them there and let them suffocate t' death."

The soldier looked over to Tala who had a blank stare on her face. He couldn't tell what she was thinking but it wasn't anything good from the look of it.

"... That's… that's awful…" She muttered.

"It was the way the law dealt with murders and rapists back home." The old fox said.

"Sorry, Tala." Sam said.

She sniffed as new tears started to well in her eyes she sat back on top of him and hugged his neck again. He brought his hand back up and started to pet her like he had done earlier.

"You shouldn't a done that, pa. She's innocent, all these mammals are. They ain't got no use for the death sentence."

"I figured she would have found out one way or another. It doesn't matter much anyways. What's done is done.

Felix chose that moment to walk back into the room, carrying a stack of foam plates and a few forks with him.

"I got what you asked, Mr. Gray."

"Thank ya young man! Do y'all want some pie, Sam?"

"I'll have some later." He replied as he comforted Tala who lay weeping softly into his neck again.

* * *

The next few weeks were nothing special. The news had painted him, yet again, as a hero that jumped in and saved the day for a second time. Though unlike last time they had also noted that he had gotten injured in the line of duty. They had shown most of the video, but blurred out the stabbing as they felt that would be too graphic for the audience. He sat there healing and wishing he was somewhere else.

The food was almost inedible. Half the time he felt that the meals he were given every day weren't even fit for a dog. He found a bit of irony in that thought though and chuckled at it from time to time. He laid there and healed for three weeks before the doctor gave him the okay to leave.

"Now you still have to be careful, a wound like that takes months to heal fully!" His doctor, a black furred doe hair had told him.

"If it starts to puss or it opens back up again come back immediately! If you get an infection it will take even longer to heal or just finish the job that one ruffian started out right."

"Understood, ma'am."

She seemed to blush at his response but it was hard to tell with the color of her fur. Nevertheless she seemed very flattered.

"Oh, ma'am is too much!" She giggled. "Just Martha is fine."

Sam smiled and considered having some more fun with her. Though then he considered that she might want to get serious with him and with their size difference he thought against it. He probably wouldn't feel right having any sort of romantic relationship with any of the locals here anyway.

Well then, Thank you Martha!" He said as he stood up from the bed he had been confined to for the past three weeks, with an exception to the occasional trips to the latrine.

His legs were cramped and his back protested heavily from the sudden burst of movement. Though he powered through it with the same determination he had gathered the first couple of days he had spent in this still strange new world. This time it was centered around the want to get out of the confines of his bed. He walked out of the room and into the hallway, carrying with him some wound dressings and painkillers. He had no intentions of coming back to this hospital anytime soon and was glad for the fresh air that greeted him once he stepped out the door.

" _Free at last."_

He spotted Gideon pulling up on to the curb and waving at Sam through the passenger side window. Sam waved back as he walked up to the van and got in. The semi-cramped conditions agitated his wound a little bit but he could manage just fine as they drove down to the house.

"Mr. Fuzzbottom told me to tell you that he's hosting a dinner party for yer honor."

"Well… hm… should I go?"

"He said that he would be honored if you went, but he said he would understand if you didn't want to come. He said that you're welcome in is house anytime you wanted."

Sam thought about it for a minute.

"Welp, I guess I'm going out to dinner tonight!" He smiled.

Gideon snapped his fingers.

"That reminds me! My pa wanted a word with you! He said he would be expecting you at the party!"

Sam didn't know what to make of that last bit. He liked the lawman well enough but if he had something to talk to Sam about, chances are they weren't good he figured.

"Did he say what for?"

"Can't tell. All he told me was that he had something he would like to discuss with you. Something about an 'opportunity'... Does that mean anything to ya?"

Sam shook his head in bewilderment.

"No… but now I'm curious. Why didn't he come and tell me personally though? Finely too? Why did they both tell you to tell this to me?"

"Well I just don't reckon I know, but they did anyway."

* * *

Later that evening he walked up to the Fuzzbottom household. He knocked on the front door and straightened his white T-shirt he had picked for that night along with a dark pair of jeans. He had hoped that he was dressed properly as he not only had no idea how proper the dress should be for an occasion like this as he had never been to something like this but what he had on was his best clothes period.

The door opened and Ms. Fuzzbottom (at least that's what Sam thought as she certainly seemed old enough to be her) stood in the threshold. She was a thin but curvy doe with light brown fur that wore a long, sleeveless, blue dress that sparkled in the afternoon light. Sam thought that the dress complemented her deep green eyes.

"Oh Mr. Ren! Come in, come in! Everyone is expecting you!"

"Thank you miss."

He stepped in and followed her through the wide hallway and into the dining room. The house was quite fashionable inside as well as outside. The walls were painted white with light blue trim and along the walls lay tables holding lamps, mirrors, and other such things along with various glass cases holding different trophies and various keepsakes. There were pictures along the walls also which housed precious memories. He stopped at one that held a sort of document.

"Oh, that's the adoption paper that we got to get little Finely." His hostess had told him once she had caught him lingering in front of it.

"Yeah… I remember one of those guys calling him an orphan."

"We never did find his parents. We found him wandering the street one day, babbling on about some sort of mammal that nobody had ever heard of before. I can't remember what he had called them on the top of my head. Though the poor dear was starved to death and stark naked when we found him. Oh he was only nine or so… Whoever would do that to a poor child is a nasty person."

"Well… my condolences miss. Though it looks like he's doing much better now." Sam noted.

"Oh I couldn't be more proud of my little Finely! He has his father's spirit, God bless his soul. Once he had unfortunately passed, being the oldest of my nineteen other sons and daughters, he adopted the family farm and went nuts with it! Under his care it grew into the most powerful farming company in the Burrows! I dare say the civilized world!"

Her tone was prideful as she told him this. Sam almost envied Finely for how he seemed to be so lucky and successful. Though he didn't dwindle on that feeling for long. Sam was never much for envy, even when the feeling struck him he would just shrug it off and tell himself to try harder and do better so that, he to, could have that sort of life. He had always been like that. From the slums of Chicago to the trenches of the Western Front.

"You mentioned you lost your husband. I'm sorry for your lost."

"Oh don't be." She brushed him off kindly. "He was a good buck but even the best don't last forever. It's been well over ten years since he has past and I will never forget how well he treated me or his children."

"He sounded like a wonderful husband."

"Oh he was, there's no doubt about that. Well we best be getting you to the others. They are bound to be getting impatient."

She led him of towards the back of the hallway and took the last turn on the left which led into a grand dining hall. The walls were painted a warm yellow that reminded Sam of gold and there was a chandelier hanging from the roof. The left wall was lined with near floor to ceiling windows that were draped with heavy curtains that were tied back with straps to the sides.

He walked in with the doe and once people recognized him the whole congregation cheered and clapped. He didn't think any of this was necessary, but was thankful for the warm welcome nonetheless. The old doe herded him into the head seat next to Finely who nodded in respect to him. Sam returned the gesture and sat. There was about thirty or so mammals in the room cheering for the guest of honor, Sam.

Finely stood up on his seat and the room went quiet.

"Now, we are all here to say 'thank you' to this brave wolf who stood loyal to my youngest brother in his time of need. Even when he had no reason to, he fended off three brutes and took a knife for young Felix. For that, I will be forever grateful to you Mr. Ren."

Everyone clapped and Sam smiled sheepishly.

"It really wasn't all that much, to be honest."

"You got stabbed for my brother. That's more than anyone can ask of you, Sam."

He chuckled as he took a sip of the champagne that he was given and watched as some cooks and a bunch of waiters stepped out of the kitchen door and handed everyone a plate of something or other.

The dish seemed to be made up of cherry tomato halves swimming in a sort of marinate that Sam couldn't guess. The reason why was because he was handed a different dish all together. He was given salmon with some butter and seasonings and some sort served on a bed of fried wild rice. He took a bite and was amazed with the flavor.

"This is delicious, Felix!"

"I brought in a cook that specializes in predator dishes. I'm glad you like it! I'll have her give you the recipe once you leave."

"Thank you! So… do you know what Robin wants with me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well Gideon said that Robin had something he wanted to talk about. Do you know what it is?"

"No… but I could guess. Though I can never really tell what that old devil is thinking half the time!" He laughed and a couple of the ones around the table shared the laugh.

Sam chuckled lightly.

"So if you were him, what would you want to talk to me about?"

"Why ask me? I'm not him."

"I figured you know him better than me."

"Not by much, Sam. He might be a big name in this little town we have, but he's not that well known about. The only one I could guess knew more about him than the rest of us would have to he his late wife. Though she was dead, it seemed, long before he came to the Burrows."

"What about Gideon? Where did he come from then?"

"I remember the day they came here. That little tod was only a few years old." Ms. Fuzzbottom spoke up.

"Do you know anything about him, mother?"

"I only know about as much as the rest of you do. That fox is a mystery to us all."

Finely shook his head.

"I'm sorry Sam, but he could just want to share a coffee with you, or arrest you for disturbing the peace. It could be either way for all we know."

"Gideon said that he was supposed to be here… I have the feeling he isn't though."

"I gave him an invitation. Though like I said, he could come in whenever, honestly. Did Gideon say anything else?"

"Not much, just that Robin had an 'opportunity' for me."

"Well that could be anything!" One of the guests, a tall buck with black fur said from across the table.

"That's more than true… oh, I never introduced you to the rest of my family! I'm sure you are well acquainted with my mother, Sara Fuzzbottom."

The elderly doe waved kindly to Sam and he returned the gesture with a nod.

"The rest of this riffraff are most of my older brothers and sisters with their spouses or lovers." He gestured to the gathering in front of them.

Just then the doorbell rang and Ms. Sara's ears perked up.

"I'll go get the door." She stated as she began to get up.

"No, mother. Eat and enjoy your dinner. I'll go get the door. This is my house after all."

"Is that so, son? Cause I remember when this was yer father's house as well." A heavy southern accented voice that was very familiar to them all said.

"Well sheriff Robin Gray! Come in and make yourself comfortable! I'll have my chef I hired fix you up something!"

"Thanks, son, but I'm here on business and I don't reckon I have time to sit down right now. I'm gonna need to steal Sam away for the night if that's okay with y'all."

"I suppose this has something to do with that 'opportunity' Sam was asking about."

"Exactly. I would rather ask him this in a more private setting if you catch my drift."

Sam looked towards Finely who bore a look of understanding as he nodded his head.

"Very well. Sam, you can either stay and eat dinner with us or see what the sheriff wants with you. I wouldn't hold you to whatever you choose."

"Well… in that case. Thank you for the meal, but I think that if Jonny Law wants to talk to me I should probably listen." He chuckled.

Robin nodded.

"Damn straight. Come on, we're burnin' daylight."

Sam got up and followed the sheriff out of the room and towards the door, leaving his half finished plate of food as he did.

* * *

The old man brought him to some sort of pub on the far side of the town. The building was only one story tall and was decorated very similar to the cafès that lined Paris and most of France's small towns and cities with brick arches and potted rows of plants behind iron bars. The windows were arched with soft yellow light pouring out of them. To Sam, the place brought back a familiar feel to it. Maybe it was just the decorations but to him it felt more familiar than anything that he had seen so far.

The sign above the door that was written in cursive read "Alma's Bar".

"Why did you take me to this place? I don't see how this is more private than a dinner party." Sam asked the old sheriff.

"Because here we can talk without worrying about the wrong ears listening in."

"What is so important that you want to tell me that can't be said in front of most people?"

Sam noticed his mistake too late. He had used the word "people" again. He was about to correct himself when the old fox raised his hand.

"You don't have to worry about keeping your past from me, son. I know where you come from."

Sam couldn't believe his ears.

"You…"

"Come inside and I'll explain."

The vulpine walked through the door leaving Sam out in the dusk of the evening. With the sun finally setting to the west and casting an orange light over the bottoms of the clouds and turning the sky red. He had no choice now but to follow Robin into the bar, if he wanted his questions answered it seemed.

The inside was lit by candlelight more than electricity it seemed. Every table had a candle made out of an old wine bottle, all lit, and the walls had oil lamps mounted to them every few paces. The floor was wood and the walls had red wallpaper plastered onto them with golden diamond patterns. There was a bar with different kinds of beverages lined up on the shelves behind it to the right and the left was filled up with round tables where young couples and groups of friends sat and dined the night away.

The air had a pleasant taste to it and the atmosphere was more than enjoyable as laughter and conversations about pleasure and life were the songs in the air. He wondered if this is what it felt like to be in a European country during the days before the war.

He spied Robin sitting near the back of the establishment in front of a large stage that took up the entire back of the building. The curtains were drawn and the stage was dark, but the board on top of it read that a show would begin around eight or so. The soldier walked towards Robin and sat down in the chair across from him.

"So what is this all about? You knowing where I come from?"

"Ya come from Chicago. I remember her well. She was such a fine city back in the day! Oh the lights and sounds and feel…"

"So… you were human once too?"

Robin starred over at the stage, his emotions hidden.

"Yes… I was human… once."

Sam couldn't believe what he was hearing. During his time in this world he thought he was the only one that had once known about the other world. For a time there he had wondered if it all had been a fever dream and he had imagined it all! He tossed that thought aside when he came to the question of "then who was he?" came from that train of thought. It would have been just too much of a coincidence if that were the case _and_ he woke up without another name and naked in the woods.

"So how did you die, son?" Robin asked. "You seem to know how to fight well… was it in a fight? Or an accident?"

"I died in combat."

The old-timer laughed.

"Oh! Y'all are still fighting, eh? Ah…"

Robin sighed.

"I did too. I was twenty five when the Great War broke out. I was part of the United States Cavalry. Had broken away from my unit during an ambush by German troops and died in the woods near Verdun from a bullet wound in my leg."

"I'm sorry… you fought in the first World War?"

"I did… I understand that there's another war now. So what's happening?"

"The Allies are pushing through France right now. Hell, I wouldn't doubt it if they were already in Germany by now!"

They both chuckled as the two soldiers continued to converse. It seemed they had a lot in common. Both had grown up without much money, though Robin seemed to have gotten off better, and both had joined the military for funds for education.

"So how do you know so much about the war? Who told you?"

"Another human. She's actually supposed to be playing tonight… most of the people in here were once human. The rest just know about us." He he gestured to the others in the building who had given them no mind that entire night.

Sam thought about something that he had nearly forgotten about in the past couple weeks.

"Is there a way to get home?"

Robin shook his head.

"No… we don't know if it's even possible. What with all this new technology y'all would think that it would be easy, but it seems like we're stuck here."

Sam's ears dropped.

"Do we at least know why we're here?"

"Nope. No one knows for sure but some think it's got somethin' t' do with chance. Others think it's for a reason. Some even believe it's a sort of second chance for some folks that got dealt a bad hand in life and couldn't make it."

A ram walked from behind the bar and onto the stage next to the two and grabbed a little black stick that sat on a poll in the middle of it.

"Alright everyone, it's time for tonight's show! Please give a warm round of applause for Mrs. Aleen Petina!" He said into the black stick, his voice echoing throughout the building. Sam realized that it was a microphone he was holding.

The pub's inhabitants started to cheer and clap while a spotlight shown on the stage and the red, velvet curtains opened a bit to show a white furred doe rabbit with light blue eyes and a friendly smile standing behind them. She walked up to the ram and was handed the microphone.

"Merci beaucoup, Alma." She said through a thick French accent.

The ram, Sam had to guess the barkeeper, walked off the stage and back to the bar. And the girl started to sing.

"Nous nous aimions bien tendrement

Comme s'aiment tous les amants

Et puis un jour tu m'as quittee

Depuis je suis desesperee

Je te vois partout dans le ciel

Je te vois partout sur la terre

Tu es ma joie et mon soleil

Ma nuit, mes jours, mes aubes claires

Tu es partout car tu es dans mon coeur

Tu es partout car tu es mon bonheur

Toutes les choses qui sont autour de moi

Meme la vie ne represente que toi

Des fois je reve que je suis dans tes bras

Et qu'a l'oreille tu me parles tout bas

Tu dis des choses qui font fermer les yeux

Et moi je trouve ca merveilleux

Peut-etre un jour tu reviendras

Je sais que mon coeur t'attendras

Tu ne pourras pas oublier

Les jours que nous avons passes

Mes yeux te cherchent sans arret

Ecoute bien mon coeur t'appelle

Nous pourrons si bien nous aimer

Tu verras la vie sera belle...

Tu es partout car tu es dans mon coeur

Tu es partout car tu es mon bonheur

Toutes les choses qui sont autour de moi

Meme la vie ne represente que toi

Des fois je reve que je suis dans tes bras

Et qu'a l'oreille tu me parles tout bas

Tu dis des choses qui font fermer les yeux

Et moi je trouve ca merveilleux…"

The tune was familiar to Sam as he swayed back and forth in his seat, mesmerized by the woman that was on the stage. He had heard the song before, playing on one of the gramophones that his platoon had found one day during the time they went exploring through one of the ruined towns they had taken. He had listened to the same song written by Edith Piaf over and over. It was one of his favorite songs.

Sam had noticed that she had stopped singing and was looking at him with a friendly smile. The crowd cheered, whistled, and clapped for her as she turned and took a bow.

"Merci! Thank you all!" She cheered as she put the microphone back on the stand and walked behind the curtains towards the back stage.

"She's…"

"Everyone likes her, Sam." Robin chuckled. "Don't be surprised if she already has a spouse!"

"I'm not interested in her like that." Sam chided. "I just can't get over that song… she sang it better that the original artist!"

"So I've been told." Robin sighed. "I don't much care for that kind of music… or, hell, any music. It's fun and all but it's just not my type of entertainment if ya catch my drift."

"Bonjour Monsieur Gray! How are we this evening?"

"Fine as ever, my sweet."

"Oh, monsieur Gray! You flatter me!"

"It isn't hard when I'm talking to such a pretty gal like you." Robin smiled,

This made Aleen giggle profusely. Sam was completely taken by her voice. He didn't want to get sappy but her voice sounded like that of an angel, sweet and kind.

"You're too much, Robin! So what are you doing here tonight? It can't be because you wanted to see me could it?"

"Well what if it was?"

"Oh I know you better than that, homme de loi. Would it have anything to do with your handsome friend there?"

She turned to Sam with the same warm and inviting smile she wore with the fox. He shook himself out of his trance and decided to pipe up.

"He was just explaining that there were more humans here in this world than I thought." He said. "I'm Sam by the way, Sam Ren."

"Are you a new arrival, mon cheri?"

"Yeah… I've been here for a couple months now."

"I believe I saw you on the news! You were the one who was stabbed!"

"Yeah… that was me…" Sam chuckled.

"You must be a very brave man to put yourself in that kind of risk!"

"It was nothing, really. I was just trying to protect that kid…"

She looked him up and down and shook her head.

"You, monsieur, are something special." She complimented him. "So how did you get here?"

"I died in combat…"

"Are you pushing back the Germans any?"

"We were, actually… we were planning on liberating Paris within the next couple months the last time I checked."

"Monsieur Ren, I cannot thank you enough for your service. What you gave up to push the oppressors out of my country and free my countrymen is something I will always be in your debt for."

Sam raised his hand.

"It's okay miss. I'm perfectly fine with a simple 'thank you'. That's all I need. My life has actually gotten better since I got here."

"But surely there is something or someone you miss!"

"..."

Sam became quiet.

"My mother…"

"Oh… Je suis désolé, monsieur Ren …"

"C'est bon, Mlle Aleen."

Robin looked at the two with a huff of annoyance.

"If y'all gonna speak French the entire time we're here then I'm just gonna leave."

"Oh monsieur Gray! Are you getting jealous of monsieur Ren?" Aleen jabbed at the old lawman with a playful attitude.

"Me? Jealous? Ha! It would take a lot t' make _me_ jealous of a good fer nothin' trouble maker like him!" Robin joked.

They all laughed at that and Aleen grabbed a seat so she could sit with the two.

"So how did you die, Sam?" Aleen asked.

"Well… I was captured during a retreat and they executed me…"

"Damn, kid. That's rough." Stated Robin.

"Ah, I guess it all worked out in the end. I'm here, aren't I?"

"Well when you say it like that… I guess it _did_ all work out!" Aleen said.

"I would say so… Anyway, did you bring me here to just tell me about humans, Robin."

"Well that was most of what I wanted to talk about but I was wondering if y'all would want a better job then workin' fer my son."

"I'm listening…"

"I want ya t' join the force and become a police officer."

Aleen gasped.

"Monsieur Gray you can not be serious! Monsieur Ren had died fighting for justice and almost did again just weeks ago! Surely you must be joking!"

"Now hold on miss Aleen. Robin, I'm interested… what would I have to do?"

"You would put yourself in danger yet again, Mon Cheri!? You are very brave!"

Robin chuckled.

"Seems ya have a thing fer the old wolf, Aleen."

"So what if I did, Robin? I'm sure he would make a fine husband." She replied, seductively towards Sam, who chuckled.

"Alright… so, Robin. What would you have me do?"

"Y'all would have to go through basic training… I reckon you know yer' way around a sticky situation. Hell I've seen yer' fightin' skill myself, but y'all would still need to prove it to the trainer at the academy."

"I'm down, can't be any worse than basic, or even the front."

"That's the spirit!" Robin chuckled.

* * *

 **Well this took longer to get out but here it is…**

 **Hey everyone, I'm back! And no I'm not gonna give up on this like some of you apparently believed… anyway, nothing new here.**

 **(Insert promise of faster update time here, even though no such promise will probably ever be kept).**

 **Thanks to Red for editing again! And thank you all for reading!**

 **This is Fox signing off:**

 **Vi!**


	9. Chapter VIII: The New Recruit

**Chapter VIII:The New Recruit**

 _"Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life"_

"Are y'all sure ya don't want me t' stay in case they don't take ya?"

"Na, go on home, Gideon. I'll be fine."

"Alright… good luck, Sam."

Samuel stood in the parking lot of the Zootopia Police Academy as he watched Gideon drive off down the highway back towards Bunny Burrow. He sighed as he looked down at his trash bag full of everything he owned. It wasn't filled with much, just a few extra sets of clothes and a few hygiene products he had been using.

He slung it over his back like Santa with his toy bag and walked towards the door. The building was a far cry from the Burrow's police department. The entrance gate was built of gray stone brick with an arch hanging between the two pillars with the name of the facility written in bronze. The front lawn was massive and the building itself was built high and long with dark red stone making up the exterior with white trim lining the windows and corners. There was a water tower looming behind the building which reminded Sam of Mickey Mouse's head, for some reason…

There were also buildings scattered around the premise and the lawn looked well manicured. The whole thing struck Sam as extensive and a bit silly, the level of decoration, it was after all just a police academy. Though he wasn't gonna start complaining anytime soon.

"Looks better than basic, anyway…"

He walked through the large, glass, double doors and stepped into the main hall. There were two sets of stairs to the left and right, separated by a hallway seeming to lead to the backyard of the academy. There were also hallways to the left and right of him leading off to the rooms on the second floor. Along these hallways there were glass cases filled with trophies, various pictures, flags, and other things lining the wall.

There was a small receptionist desk in the middle of the room with a doe at the desk filing paperwork at the moment. She turned to Sam when he walked in and acknowledged him with a nod.

"If you've come to take a tour of the place you should probably just leave." She started with an amused tone.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just looking around… so do I sign up with you or do I have to go somewhere special to fill out a form?"

"You can sign here with me… You wanna be a police officer?"

"Yes ma'am, I would like that."

She became a bit flustered with his response and turned her head to hide her smile.

"There's no need to be so formal, sir!" She giggled.

Sam walked closer and put his elbows on the desk. He let his head rest on his palms and smiled warmly.

"I'm sorry, but my mother taught me to respect beautiful girls."

He winked and she laughed.

"Oh please! You flatter me too much!"

She backed her chair up and leaned down to grab a piece of paper. She handed it back to Sam with a smile.

"Here's the application. Just hand it in when you're done and I'll run it to my boss. She should be able to review it as soon as I give it to her and you can start right off.

"Thank you ma'am!"

She giggled and Sam stated to fill out the paper with his personal info with a pen he took from a cup next to him. He got out his wallet and checked over his citizen card to help with the more legal side of the form and answered the personal questions as honestly as he could.

Truth be told he could have just lied on most of those questions as some of them asked if he had ever been arrested or detained in his life. He could have said "no" because they would have had no chance in hell to credit that and would probably have to take his claim at face value… but he figured that it would be better to tell the truth and say yes… there was a story behind why he said yes on that question, but he figured it wasn't worth the trouble to remember that memory…

"Do you have any special skills?"

He thought on this one a minute… he finally decided to use his first aid training to answer this one. Though he left out his combat training for the reason that if they asked how and why he got this training it would have been a bit harder to explain as Robin had informed him that this world has little to no concept of war or national conflicts like humans were so used to.

He handed the paper back to the doe at the desk who pulled out an orange folder and put the paper in it.

"You're lucky. Today was the last day we were accepting applications. Tomorrow we start training."

"Well lucky me I guess!" Sam gleamed.

"Heh… well I'll run this to the director. She'll be the one to tell you if we'll take you or not. I'm pretty sure she'll give you an interview now! Follow me."

She sat up with Sam's folder in hand and walked into the left hallway and Sam obeyed. She walked all the way down, her hooves clacking on the tile with each step and Sam making nay a sound with his padded paws. She knocked on the farthest door on the right and a gruff but feminine voice beckoned for them to enter from the other side. The receptionist opened the door and walked in with Sam behind her.

The woman behind the dark, shiny wood desk was a massive polar bear. Her large figure nearly made Sam jump but he was able to contain his surprise and smile politely. He figured that she would soon be his superior officer come the next hour so he concentrated on making a good first impression by standing upright with his hands behind his back and keeping a cool but submissive posture and expression.

"New recruit, Shannon?" She asked.

"Yes, miss. Here's his application."

"Did you just walk in?" The polar bear asked Sam.

"With nothing but what I own in a trash bag filled with everything I own on my back, ma'am." He stated.

She stopped looking over his paper, turned her head up, and raised an eyebrow.

"You're homeless?"

"As of today, yes. I made arrangements with the one I was staying at and left to train here and hopefully move to wherever I'm stationed."

"You sound pretty confident you'll pass…"

"Confidence is key, ma'am."

She chuckled.

"Well… Anna, You may leave now."

"Yes, miss Friedkid."

She then turned around and opened the door. Though she turned to Sam before she walked out completely.

"Good luck, handsome!"

"Thank you." He replied with a slight bow.

She shut the door behind her and Sam waited a few minutes for miss Friedkid to finish reading his resume. After a while he started to feel just a bit uncomfortable but stood still in respect and resolved himself.

"You've been arrested before?"

"Yes ma'am…"

"What for?"

"Public disturbance, ma'am."

She looked up again and raised an eyebrow.

"Says here your from a village in the north… you know you could have just said you've never been arrested before and I wouldn't be able to tell either way, right?"

"I feel that if I'm honest you would trust me more, ma'am."

She thought this over and nodded her head in agreement.

"Well anyway… it says here you have… 'medical training'? What kind of medical training?"

"I was a field paramedic, ma'am…"

"So… you weren't a doctor. Just someone who road in the back of an ambulance?"

Sam thought about that for a minute.

"Something like that. My job was to keep patients alive long enough for them to get more professional help from doctors who were better suited and supplied to treat their injuries."

Friedkid nodded.

"You must of seen some messed up stuff then."

"You have no idea, ma'am."

She chuckled and looked up at him.

"I like you already… and I can't really tell 'why' I do… but I do. Alright well is there any other reason you can give me to convince me that I should train you for the streets?"

"Sheriff Robin told me to mention his name when I was talking to the supervisor here…"

"Oh that sly, old fox got you hooked up did he?" She asked and chuckled in amusement.

She turned around in her chair and grabbed a key off a line of hooks. She turned back and presented it to Sam.

"Here's your room key, if you lose it you're paying for the replacement. Your dorm is room 115 on the second floor. Just take a left and you should find it."

"Thank you ma'am." He said as he took the key.

"Alright well I think the others are hanging out in the library. Go hang with them if you like, but I want you up by 0800 tomorrow for training so I wouldn't stay up too late."

"Yes ma'am, thank you."

"Dismissed."

He saluted her and walked out of the room with a big smile on his face.

He walked past the front desk on his way towards the stairs and the doe from earlier was looking at him with a sort of smug look on her face while her elbow was sitting on the desk and her holding her head in her hoof.

"Get the job?" She asked.

Sam smiled and replied politely.

"Sure did! Said she liked me!"

"Huh… you'd be the first." She smiled. "Well I'm glad you got the job. I feel like things would have been kind of boring without ya…"

"How's that? You don't know me."

"Yeah… but you give of a kind of feeling… I think you're gonna make things a bit more interesting around here."

"Are you sure you just didn't want to see me go because you wouldn't have anything as handsome as me to look at."

Sam smiled slyly and she shrugged.

"Maybe, you gonna blame me? Not very many good looking mammals come here."

"Well I'll be sure to stick around to give you quite an eye full." Sam winked.

"Well then!" She giggled. " I hope so! Well anyway, the others are in the library, aside from Elly who's in the cafeteria down the hall taking advantage of the free food."

"Yeah… 'what's her name' told me."

"Major Friedkid? Yeah… I wasn't kidding when I said you would be the first candidate she likes right off the bat. I would advise you to keep her happy…"

"Hmmm… 'Don't piss off my superior officer'? Sounds like advice to listen to!" Sam said jokingly.

She giggled and picked up a paperback and started reading.

"Whatever… see ya later… what was your name again?"

"Call me Sam."

"Alright, see ya later, Sam."

"You too, Anna."

Sam grabbed his bag of stuff he put on the floor and walked up the stairs, but turned back half way to see Anna staring at him with a… Sam thought it was a sort of a lustful smile… he decided to milk this and winked at her while wagging his tail just a bit.

She giggled and turned back to her novel as he walked up the stairs and turned left. He thought about what he just did. She clearly liked him… but like he figured before, he didn't think he would have been comfortable having a relationship with anyone here just yet… probably ever… He wondered how far this innocent flirting would go.

* * *

He shook his head and figured what happens would happen and walked down the hallway looking for his room.

"111… 113…115, here it is."

He unlocked the door and stepped in. It wasn't that big of a room but it was cozy in it's own way. The carpet was dark blue and the bed sheets were the same color. The bed itself was a twin with two pillows, and there was a desk next to it sitting in front of the window that looked over the front yard and the parking lot. There was a small, plane wardrobe in the corner and the room smelled like air freshener.

"Kind of fancy for a training facility… oh well, I. I'm not gonna complain!"

He tossed his bag of stuff on the bed and figured he'd put them away later. Right now he wanted to go meet his new roommates. He walked out of the room, locked it, and headed for the library.

Sam walked past the stairs and through the right hallway. The library was the third door on the left and had a small rectangular window to the side of it. Through the window, Sam could see the others sitting around a table in the center of the room, laughing and smiling. He opened the door and walked in.

The room wasn't too small… just a bunch of bookshelves made of gray steel and wood, stocked with a lot of reading material. There were a few circular tables scattered around the center of the room, and almost everyone was crowdednear the middle table. There were about twenty of them in total, the majority of them large predators. There were three other wolves, two bears, three tigers, two deer, one weasel, one hair, two foxes, a giraffe, a rhino, an elephant, and three lions (two of which were female).

They all turned their heads towards Sam and he nodded in recognition.

"Hey… whatcha all doin'?" Sam asked.

"Aw we're just having a good time… who are you?" a female lion asked with a kind smile.

"Just the new guy, don't mind me."

Sam walked over to the ring and grabbed a chair. He spun it around and sat in it backwards and rested his head on the back of the chair.

"Name's Sam. Nice to meet you guys."

"Well did ya just sign up, kid?" The rhino asked.

"Sure did, just walked in here and filled out a paper."

Most of them nodded and a few turned back to their conversations.

"So why are ya joining the service, Sam?" The same female lion from before asked.

"Well… I thought it would just be a good fit… what about you?"

"I'm here cuz' I wanted to help people." She responded.

"Same here." One of the wolves added.

"Oh that's nice."

He turned to the rhino.

"So what about you, big guy?"

Both the rhino and the elephant turned to Sam thinking that they were both being addressed.

"Uh, big guy with the horn. My bad."

They both looked at each other and chuckled. Then the rhino spoke up.

"I'm here because my father was in the police force in Zootopia. I want to follow in his hoofprints."

"You said he 'was'... Where is he now?"

"In retirement, living in one of the better parts of the city now."

Sam nodded. He could probably think of a lot of Chicago police officers that would have been very jealous of this guy's father.

"Well congrats to him. So you guys know what's gonna happen tomorrow?"

"I heard they're gonna put us through some training and then a bit of classroom learning." One of the foxes added.

"Hope the training isn't too bad." The weasel said. "I don't want to work that hard just for a cop's salary.

"I wouldn't count on it, kid. They expect you to fight. I have a feeling that they're gonna want you to be in pretty good shape." Sam replied.

"If any of the baddies try and fight back I'll make 'em sorry they were ever born!" One of the tigers, a female, responded to Sam.

She stood up from the seat she was sitting in and pulled the biggest knife Sam had ever seen.

"Big mama here will make sure of it." She said with a bit of a sadistic smile.

Needless to say, just about everyone that was sitting within five feet of her moved away slightly.

"That's a big one ya got there…" Sam noted.

"Thanks! My big bro gave it to me!"

"Mind if I take a look at it?"

She flipped it and handed the blade to Sam hilt first. He took it and looked it over. He noticed on the hilt that it looked like someone had cut something off of it as there was a small rectangular bit of bare metal where the blade met the handle.

"My bro said I should have the biggest tooth in any fight."

"It's not a knife."

The entire gathering looked at him with a puzzled look on their faces.

"It's a bayonet, not a knife. You attach this to the end of the barrel of your gun. It looks like your brother sawed off the ring you use to attach it."

"... Why would you put that on the end of a tranquilizer gun?" One of the wolves asked.

"Well I'm not talking about just tranquilizers, but yeah. I guess you could use it on one too. You use it as a sort of spearhead. It helps protect yourself in close quarters combat."

"So… I can put it on the end of my gun!?" The tiger asked with a gleeful look on her face.

"No. Like I said, it looks like your brother sawed off the ring you use to put it on a gun…"

Her ears dropped and she honestly looked disappointed.

"What's your name again?" He asked her.

"Kat. Why?"

"Just curious…"

"It might be smart to steer clear of this one…" He thought.

"So… um… what's your story, Sam?" One of the bears, a female, asked.

"Oh, nothing special… I'm just a guy looking for some easy work and a good enough pay.

"You think being a cop is easy?" The rhino asked.

"Maybe not for some, but I'm familiar with most of what it will ask."

He chuckled at Sam's response and turned to the rest of the room.

"Listen up everyone. I don't care how much you think you know. A lot of you probably have no idea what this job will ask of you so don't assume you do! You won't make it far unless you tell yourself that you don't know anything and are willing to learn!"

Some of the ones gathered nodded their heads while others scoffed and turned back to their individual conversations.

"Don't say I didn't warn you."

"Hey." Sam said.

The man turned to him.

"Don't worry. Those that don't have any business here will get weeded out."

The rhino thought about this for a second then nodded in agreement.

The rest of the evening was spent getting to know the rest of the congregation. He learned that the rhino's name was Nathaniel, though he preferred "Nate" for short. The wolves we're actually siblings, two brothers and a sister, the female's name were Saratoga and the two brothers were Bane and Markis. Most of the others didn't talk much to Sam or the others so he didn't quite catch their names but he figured that it wasn't worth learning their names anyway.

Sam walked into his new dorm and set his bag of stuff on the floor. He flopped down onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. He considered exactly why he was there in the first place. On the one hand he had died in violent combat, though on the other he seemed to be good in combat. He honesty chalked it up to the fact that he was an idiot… That seemed to be the one constant factor in his life.

He closed his eyes and drifted off into the land of dreams. Or in his case, as was always, the land of nightmares.

* * *

"ALRIGHT YOU SORRY EXCUSES FOR MAMMALS! FALL IN!"

Everyone gathered in a straight line in front of the drill sargent out in front of the training facility. To Sam's surprise it was miss Friedkid who was standing in front of the gathering, along with Anna who stood next to her with a clipboard. Friedkid held herself with the kind of self confidence that you would expect a general to hold and Sam respected that.

"Now if I have everyone's attention, I would like to inform you about what we will be doing. Today we will be assessing everyone's physical abilities and making sure you can handle the physical pressure of what it takes to be a police officer. Now please keep in mind that we will not be holding each of you at a specific standard set by another as most of you little guys wouldn't be able to meet the standards of the bigger ones of you."

She studied the line of potential officers as they replied "Yes ma'am" to her statements.

"Alright… let's get started!"

They made their way towards the backyard where the obstacle course was located and walked towards what looked like a jungle gym.

"Alright, you will each have two tries to pass this obstacle within two minutes! Whoever passes will get to move on with the training. Whoever fails will be sent home immediately! Once I call your name you are to come forward and climb that ladder. As soon as I blow my whistle you are to make your way through the course towards the end which has been clearly marked! The first up is Gilgamesh Ford!"

One of the male tigers, a huge creature with a nice sized scar going across his left cheek, stepped up and climbed the ladder. He made his way up and walked up one of the ramps towards the bars that marked the start of the course.

The trainer didn't even give him a second to get ready as she blew the whistle as soon as he got into position. Sam watched closely as Ford made his way passed the bars as easily as he would throw a ball. Once passed the bars he started working on the hurdles that juted up from a straight run that led to the next obstacle which consisted of a mess of bars coming down, up, sideways, and bent in a tangle of iron. Once he had gotten passed that he had to jump straight over a huge wall probably a good six feet high. The next obstacle was another wall that came up at a steep angle with a rope coming down from the top that he would have to climb. The next and last challenge that they all faced was a single rope tied to the top most highest point on the course located at the top of the second wall obstacle that led all the way down to the ground.

Gilgamesh Ford made it through in about a minute and a half. He came back towards the group panting and sat down on the grass.

"Good job Ford. You managed not to die! Well done… SARATOGA MUNE!"

The young she-wolf stepped up to the ramp and Friedkid blew her whistle. It took her about a minute and fourty seconds to pass the obstacle course intact.

"Good job. Now, Kat Ryder!"

"Wish me luck everyone!" Kat said with a gleam in her eye.

She ended up being about as fast as Ford at around a minute and thirty seconds. Sam wasn't surprised though and neither was everyone else. Kat seemed to be in her element here on the field.

"Alright!" Friedkid announced. "Next up is Jeffrey Westling!"

The stepped up to the course and Friedkid blew her whistle. He faild the first time but ended up making the cut the second time around at about a minute and fifty seven seconds.

"You cut it close Westling… don't disappoint me again!"

"Yes ma'am."

"Alright… Samuel Ren! Get up there!"

"Good luck Sammy!" Kat announced.

He climbed the ladder and stepped up to one of the three ramps that were in front of him. He took the middle one where he could easily reach the bars if he jumped and got ready for the whistle. Once he heard it he jumped and nearly flew across the bars. This obstacle was his favorite in boot camp so he was not only well accustomed to the challenge he enjoyed it. He landed feet first and rolled into the next obstacle which were the hurdles. Again he took off into a full sprint and cleared every one of them with blinding speed. The entangled bars turned out to be no trouble at all as he was in and out of them faster then you could say FUBAR.

Once he got to the wall he jumped and used his claws for traction as he vaulted over the obstacle as easily as a gymnast. The last two obstacles were almost as easy as the rest as Sam jogged up the slope with the help from the rope and climbed down off the course. He stopped to catch his breath and turned to the others who's jaws were nearly on the floor.

"... What?"

"Th… that…" Nate stuttered.

"Did I break a record?"

"... Yeah…" Friedkid said. "You broke the current record…"

"What was my time?"

"Fifty eight seconds… You broke the record by three seconds."

"Huh… cool."

"... Well… um… Bane Mune. It's your turn."

Sam walked back to the others to take his place back and as he did Bane walked past him. They made eye contact and Bane nodded respectfully. Sam did the same.

"TWENTY SEVEN, TWENTY EIGHT TWENTY NINE, THIRTY!" The gathering all chatted in unity.

After everyone completed the optical course they were all taken inside to perform physical evaluation tests consisting of three sets of thirty push ups, fifty set ups, one hundred jumping jacks, and ten chin ups. To Sam, this was almost a walk in the park. Three mammals had been sent home after the obstacle course. The ones that were sent home were the giraffe, one of the tigers (not Kat or Gilgamesh but the other one that Sam didn't know) and one of the bears.

"Well… the bad news is that the rest of you aren't going home today… the good news is that it's cicada meatloaf day today in the cafeteria so we're gonna stop here for today so I can go get some grub. DISMISSED!"

* * *

They all walked out of the gym they had been practicing in for the past twenty minutes and all were in a happy mood. Most grouped up and started friendly conversations with each other while they all head d for the main facility.

"Hey Mr. Ren!"

Sam turned around to see the wolf trio run up to him and stop. They tried to catch their breath as Sam chuckled at the three.

"What's up?" He asked them.

"Where, pant, where did you learn to do that?!" Bane asked.

"What do you mean?"

"On the obstacle course! It was like you flew past it! Where did you learn to be that fast?" Saratoga asked.

"Oh! Well I suppose I'm just that good!" He laughed.

"Well… would you like to have dinner with us?"

Sam was a bit surprised by the offer but figured that it would probably be good for him to make some friends while he was here… It was better than making enemies.

"Sure! I'll eat with ya. Friedkid said it was cicada meatloaf tonight?"

"Mmmm my favorite!" Markis stated. "Let's go, I'm starving!"

A few minutes later the four of them sat down at a table near one of the windows that looked out over the front lawn. Sam watched as the three bowed their heads slightly and say a little prayer before they ate.

"You three religious?"

"We were raised catholic." Saratoga said.

He thought about that for a minute… he now knew that there were humans living here in Andora so the thought of any sort of religion coming over from Earth wasn't surprising. Though he thought better than to ask about where they picked up the practice as he remembered that only a few mammals probably knew the truth to where it came from.

"Do you believe in the Lord, Mr. Ren?" Markis asked.

"Oh, please, call me Sam!" He smiled.

He thought about the question for a minute…

"Well… I think that there must be something up there… so yeah, I guess."

"'I guess'?"

"Well… I'm not completely sure but I do believe that there must be someone watching us. I don't think that we just came here by chance… that's just silly."

They all nodded in agreement.

"Those quacks over in Zootopia think that we all came from a soup hundreds of millions of years ago! Can you believe that!?" Bane said as they all laughed.

"Yeah… that idea is kinda stupid." Sam stated.

Suddenly someone huge sat down next to Sam and made the entire table shake. He looked up to see Nate sitting beside him and smiled.

"How's it going?" He asked the rhino.

"Not bad… what are you guys laughing about over here?"

"Just how silly those guys at the natural history museum are when they say there isn't any God." Saratoga replied.

Nate chuckled at that.

"Yeah it's kinda stupid to be honest. I can't hardly believe that anyone could believe something so degrading as that…"

"Well anyway… do you know what happens next?" Sam asked him.

The rhino scratched his chin.

"Well… my dad told me that after the first day they drill you and train you for about six months. There's gonna be more physical tests and a whole lot of classroom learning if he was right."

"Well… I'm fine with that…" Sam said.

"I wonder when we'll learn how to shoot a tranquilizer gun!" Markis added.

"Well that'll be near the end… at least that's what my dad said." Nate responded.

"Have you ever shot a gun, Nate?" Sam asked.

The rhino shook his head.

"Na… they keep those guns locked up tight… I've never even seen one up close. My dad wasn't even aloud to bring one home. What about you, Sam? Have you ever seen a gun?"

"Sure have… shot plenty of 'em back when…"

He stopped himself there. He noticed that everyone was looking at him funny.

"My, uh, old job required me to know a thing or two."

"What was it like?" Saratoga asked.

Samuel shrugged.

"Nothing really special to be honest. I never much cared for it but I was a decent shot."

"Well then… with that and the fact that you were the best of us in the course today… I think you'll make a pretty good cop." Nate said to Sam.

"Yeah, well, I hope so…"

* * *

He laid in his bed alone. The room was dark save for the orange glow cascading over the walls coming from the street lamps that hung over the parking lot. He watched the ceiling fan spin as he laied there contemplating the events of today as well as what would happen between here and the next six months. He figured that it was good that he made at least a few friends.

He figured that he could probably last another couple months here. It's not like the work so far was hard. Whatever the case he was gonna stick to this to the end.

* * *

 **Before I start with anything I just wanted everyone to know that the segment with Sam and the three Mune siblings is not an attack on anyone's religious beliefs in the slightest. I had written it like that to make the point that almost everyone on Andora is religious in one way or another and the dominant religion is Christianity with all of its forms that go along with it. Not only did I think this as practical for the plot (explain to me how the hell is any of this happening without Divine intervention, much less how there's an entire world where every mammal species aside from dolphins and whales are sentient… I feel evaluation would be a nearly insane argument to make) but I also saw this as necessary for future reference which will be explained later. I don't mean to hate on anyone's religious beliefs with any of my work and respect that God has given man the free will to believe in whatever the hell you want.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, I would like to thank Red for not only editing this chapter but also taking up the slack and finding a suitable name and quote for this chapter (something I failed to do). And I want to thank each and every one of you for following and favoriting me and my work… it means a lot to me that everyone seems to like my shitty fics XD**

 **Well I think that's all for now,**

 **Vi!**

 **Hey everyone, Red here(the editor). I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I know I have! I'll see you guys later.**

 **-Red**


	10. Chapter IX: The City

**Chapter VIIII: The City...**

" _Friends are God's way of apologizing for our families."_

The days flew by for Sam. It had been almost a month since he started training, and he quickly turned the average day's activities into sort of a routine. He would wake up, have breakfast with the Mune trio, and basically take orders. Day in and day out he did or tried to do everything that was asked of him. Most of the physical challenges we're almost too easy for him, but the real challenge for him came from studying the laws of this world and how to apply them.

Sam sat in the library doing just that, as a matter of fact, reading a history book of Zootopia's laws as Kat walked up to him and threw a large law dictionary down on the table. It made a noticeable thud as the hard back cover hit wood. She proceeded to make even more noise as she sat down and sighed heavily.

"You do realize that libraries are supposed to be quiet places, right?" He asked her without taking his eyes off of his study material.

"Who the fuck cares, am I right?"

"I do."

Kat scoffed as she opened up the book to somewhere in the middle and began to look for something.

"Pussy.", Kat called out.

"Look who's calling the kettle 'black', little kitty."

The soldier had a bit of a smile on his face as he started to poke fun at her. She laughed a bit at Sam's reply and she stopped flipping through the book asshe found what she was looking for.

"Ah, you got me… Hey Sam!"

He turned around to see Saratoga walk up to him with a smile on her face.

"Hey Sara, what's going on?"

"Nothing much, you doing anything tonight?"

"Not really… why?"

"Well today we're aloud to leave the facility and take a break. The boys and I were wondering if you wanted to go do something tonight!"

"Well… depends… what exactly are we gonna be doing tonight?" Sam asked

"Well we were just wondering if tonight you would like to walk around the city with the rest of us."

"Well who else is going?"

"Just me and the boys, but you can bring someone with you if you want!"

"Thanks Sara… I'll think about it."

"We'll be leaving at about five! Meet us by the front door if you wanna come."

"Sure thing."

The she-wolf bounded off happily as the two at the table exchanged smiles.

"She likes you." Kat said.

"I got that feeling… I don't know why people seem to like me all that much."

"Well maybe it's because you're cute!"

"What do you mean by 'cute'? There is nothing about me that's cute." Sam said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well I mean you're a little smaller than most wolves I've met… and you're fit too. It's no wonder you have so many admirers."

"Don't tell me you've taken a fancy to me too."

She scoffed.

"With a little bitch like you! In your dreams!"

Sam chuckled and went back to his book as Kat stood up and stretched."

"Well I'm gonna go. See ya later."

With that, she strolled down the isle of books and out of sight.

* * *

At around five o'clock Sam made his way towards the front door. He had his best clothes on and had used the "Musk Mask" stuff he had bought a while ago to keep himself smelling nice. The sun had begun to turn the sky pick and a cool wind blew past the trees as he stood there while the Mune's were lingering around their car. It surprised the soldier to see Anna standing by the tree talking about something he couldn't make out.

"Well I'm not saying you shouldn't do what you want bu-" Saratoga stopped abruptly once she noticed that Sam was walking up to them. She put on a smile and waved at him Sam waved back.

"Oh! You decided to come?" Bane asked, obviously happy that Sam was here.

"Well I wasn't doing anything else today so I thought I might as well... Oh, and 'hey' Anna."

"Hi Sam. So they invited you too?"

"Apparently… though they didn't inform me that you would be coming as well." He said ,making sideways glances at the Munes while Saratoga tried to suppress her giddy smile.

"We figured you two would like to have a night out!" She said.

"It was mostly her idea." Markis stated.

"I see…" Anaa said while she leaned down and whispered into her ear.

Saratoga's face gave off an embarrassed sort of look as she waved her off and buffed up her chest.

"Well anyway! You guys ready for a night out!"

"I'm good to go." Bane said. "Come on, the city awaits!"

"City?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, we're going to Zootopia for the night. We got tomorrow off too and Sara wanted to spend the night in the city."

"I don't have that much cash ya know…" Sam said.

"Oh don't worry! We booked rooms!" Sara piped up.

Everyone looked at her curiously.

"You what?" Bane asked.

"Well… _I_ booked us all some rooms, at least."

"With who's money…?" Markis asked.

"Dad's… but it doesn't matter! All that matters is that we have fun this weekend!"

"Well I'm down." Said Anna.

"Alright… Zootopia, huh? Never been. What's it like?"

"You've never been to Zootopia?" Markis asked.

"Na… I heard about it a lot but I've never actually been to the city."

"Oh it's this magical place where anyone can be anything!" Anna stated sarcastically. "Honestly though, it's only sorta okay."

"Why do you think that, Anna?" Saratoga asked.

"I used to live there before I moved to Philly County. My dad worked at a tailor shop in downtown. The city itself isn't too bad… it's the mammals."

"They treat you bad?" Sam asked with a bit of concern.

"No… but the mammal that my dad worked for had a son. Him and I would hang out and play all the time when we were little. Then he tried to join the mammal scouts. He came home crying because the others bullied him for being a fox… You can kinda understand why I'm not a huge fan of the mammals that live there now."

"Huh… that sucks." Bane stated. "Yeah I heard foxes get a bad rep over there."

"It's stupid… well are we gonna go or what?" Anna asked.

* * *

The trip took them about thirty minutes. Sam watched in awe when skyscrapers came into view as they passed the hills and valleys that dotted the northern-ish part of the country. It was huge to say the least. And not only that but it seemed to be divided by huge walls that sectioned the city into four seasons. There were huge snowy caps, a jungle, huge sand dunes, and in the middle of it all was a huge city. It looked familiar but Sam couldn't understand why.

They crossed the biggest bridge Sam had ever seen and they were in the city right as the sun was giving in for the night. The place was alive with lights and sounds alike as Saratoga easily bobbed and weaved through traffic that would have given Sam a panic attack. They finally found their way to the city center after seeing the desert area (which Sam couldn't believe was _that_ close to a tundra) and drove around for a while.

"You like what you see, Sam?"

He turned around towards Anna, who was sitting besides him. Saratoga was the driver for tonight and Markis was sitting shotgun helping his sister navigate. As for Bane he had decided to ride in the trunk( Sam had realized earlier that month that it wasn't illegal for, some reason…).

"I'm… I have no words… how?"

He was completely awestruck at this point. Anna shrugged and turned back to her own window.

"Those walls are giant air-conditioners. They help regulate the temperature and humidity for each biome so all kinds of different species can call the city home. It took awhile to build and they almost constantly need maintenance, but I guess it's cool."

"Pun intended!" Bane piped up.

She sighed and looked out at the streets as cars and civilians passed by. Sam remembered the fact that she didn't care much for the city so he turned back to watch what would happen out of his window.

They eventually reached some sort of huge hotel complex. Sam followed the four inside and was greeted by a tiny fox squirrel wearing some sort of hotel bellhop suit.

"Welcome to Zoo-in! The best hotel in Zootopia! How can I help you?"

"Hello!" Saratoga started. "Two rooms for 'Mune'?"

The rodent nodded as he typed something onto his little pad he was carrying.

"Alright, follow me!"

The little guy started to walk off and everyone followed him. After a couple of minutes in the elevator they arrived at the top floor and the squirrel led them to the end of the hallway.

"You guys ordered the suite so you also get free room service and complimentary breakfast! If you need anything just call up the front desk and we'll send you whatever you ask for!"

"Thank you so much! Oh this is wonderful!" Saratoga's face was completely lit up… and it wasn't just because of all the lights coming from the ceiling.

"You're welcome!" He told her as he handed Anna the key.

And with that he walked off back into the elevator and was gone.

"He was too friendly…" Anna said.

Sam shrugged. "What I wanna know is why did you get two suites and not just three regular rooms?"

The Mune siblings looked over towards their sister with… Sam couldn't tell whether they were amazed at how unusual this all was or were just upset that their sister spent so much money without their permission. She tried to wave off their stares.

"Because it was cheaper just to rent the two suites they had instead of rooms for all of us."

"Well… okay… but who's gonna sleep where?" Bane asked.

"Well how about we let the girls stay together an- OW!"

Saratoga's elbow found Markis's side and gave it quite the love tap. He looked over towards her sister who was quietly shaking her head.

"How about I sleep with my brother's and you two can take the second room!"

Sam and Anna looked at each other, puzzled. Bane apparently got what her sister was trying to do and bobbed his head yes.

"Yeah I agree! It's hard for me to sleep without you two!" He said.

Markis saw the glare his sis was giving him and decided to keep whatever he was going to say to himself.

"Well… guess it's not _too_ bad… it's a suite after all." Anna figured.

Sam walked into one of the rooms and he was actually surprised by how big it was. The front room was huge, and the floor to ceiling windows looking out onto the skyline of the city didn't help. There were tan white carpets covering both the front room and the hallway to the right that led into the bedroom and bathroom. The couch was shaped like an L and faced a huge flat screen TV with a small kitchen to the left.

"Yeah… it's a suite alright…" Sam said in awe. "And your dad can afford _this_?"

"Sure can! He's pretty big in the city!" Saratoga answered. "Well we're gonna leave you two alone and go see where we can go tomorrow! Night!"

She quickly ran herself and her siblings out of the room Sam had chosen and closed the door behind her, leaving both Sam and Anna to look at each other in confusion.

"She was acting kinda strange… well… stranger then usual." She said.

"I'll say…"

Anna took one look around the room as Sam wondered what they were up to… well more the she-wolf than anyone else.

"Well I'll take the couch and you can have the bed." Sam told his new roommate.

"I can't let you do that!"

He gestured to said couch.

"I've slept under bridges and a whole lot worse than _that_. I think I'll be fine."

Anna looked at him hesitantly.

"What can be worse then sleeping under a bridge?"

" _Sleeping in a war zone"_ He thought.

"A bunch of things. I'll be fine though, don't worry."

"Well… okay… if you want…"

"Unless there are two beds in there?"

She walked in and came back shaking her head.

"No… just the one… but it's big enough for the both of us. If you want…"

"Really? No I couldn't do that."

"Why not?"

Sam honestly didn't really have any other answer, other than it wouldn't be gentleman like, but it was the only thing he could think of.

"It just wouldn't be right."

"Well… I'm fine with it…"

She looked down and held both her hooves together down near her… He didn't honestly know if he liked where this was going or not.

"Would you be uncomfortable… sleeping with me?" She asked as she turned away from his gaze slightly.

"... Well I guess I wouldn't mind. So long as you would want me to" He concluded.

He face lit up like the Chicago skyline once he said that.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Do you wanna go to bed now?"

She blushed a little when he asked that.

"No… we don't have to… we can watch TV if you want?"

"I'm fine with anything sweetheart." He said with a wink.

She giggled a little as she walked over to the couch and turned the television. He sat beside her and put his arms up on the backrest to stretch himself out a little. He was actually surprised when she leaned up against him as she flipped through the channels.

"Sorry if I seem weird." She said.

"Why's that?"

"Well… it's just I've never really… been good at… well…"

"Relationships?"

Sam saw she hung her head a bit to avoid his look again.

" _What the hell is going on?!"_

"I don't know. I wouldn't exactly call this a relationship…" She stated.

"Where did this come from exactly?"

"... I think Saratoga was right…"

"Right about 'what', exactly?"

"Well… me and her have been talking a lot about stuff lately and she thinks I like you… I don't know what to think honestly… it's just… the day you came by… I honestly didn't know what to make of you. I haven't really seen much of you after that though, and Saratoga has been talking about you… not in a bad way though! I think she's just trying to get us to be together more to… 'help'."

"That would explain why she's acting weird…" Sam concluded.

She chuckled.

"No wonder she only got two rooms and insisted that we sleep in the same one." He said.

"Probably…"

She sighed.

"Are you into it?"

"Into what?"

"Cross species?"

Sam thought about what that might mean for a minute and then understood what that meant. He thought about it for a minute while she sat up and looked at him hesitantly.

"I… I guess? I don't think I would be against that… I've never really heard of it before though…"

"... Wait… really?"

"No… but yeah I wouldn't have a problem with it… honestly."

She sighed in relief.

"So you wouldn't think I'm weird for saying I might like you?"

"On that level? No. Though I don't know what you find in me that's so appealing!" He chuckled.

There was truth in his statement. Since he was human by nature he kinda already figured his options were drastically limited if he would look for a partner from the same species.

"Well, I like your smile…" She was blushing by this point, Sam could swear it.

"You like my smile?... Huh… interesting…"

"Is that a weird thing to say!?" She got up and looked at him with a bit of panic.

"No! Nonono, it's okay!... Actually that's about the nicest thing I've heard about me in a while!" He chuckled.

"Oh… well… I do…"

"Well on that level I think the way you're twitching right now is cute." He said while his cheeks started to feel a bit hot."

* * *

"What's going on?!" Bane whispered to his sister.

"Well I can't hear anything if you don't _shut up!_ " She replied

"You both should just leave them alone…They are fully functioning adults and you shouldn't try to manipulate them. They can take care of themselves."

"But if I don't help them who will!"

Markis sighed and began to say something but Saratoga raised her paw. She was listening to the two through the wall' using a glass cup to amplify the sound.

" _Well I think the way you're twitching right now is cute…"_

"... Oh my God…" She exclaimed.

" _Shut up, Bane!"_

"I swear it's like highschool all over again…" Markis sighed.

"Well if you didn't step in i would have had Mick and Lye married by now!" She told her older brother.

"Yeah… and Mick would be beating Lye right now if i didn't step in. Come on Sara… You knew Mick was a bully!"

"But everyone needs love in their life!"

"In Micks case… that's debatable…"

"Hey… I think I hear something!"

That grabbed the she-wolf's attention quickly a she honed in on the conversation happening on the other side of the wall.

" _So… you uh…. Wanna go have sex?"_

" _Absolutely! Come on mister wolf…_ _ **Defile**_ _me!"_

The two eavesdroppers jaws hit the floor...

* * *

It took all of Sam's will not to burst out laughing. And by looking at Anna he thought she felt the same. He had become aware that the three in the room next to them were listening in one their conversation and was able to allert Anna to it too without alerting the three next to them. They had silently agreed to fuck with them in about three seconds, an it seemed to be doing the job. He didn't hear anything.

The next line would be priceless, he thought.

"Oh I'm going to fuck you so hard that it will make the Germans invasion of Poland look like foreplay…"

She stared at him a bit with a puzzled look and it took all of his will not to burst out laughing. And when Saratoga's shrieks ensued he finally cracked, and so did Anna.

Not two seconds later the three of them burst into their room to find the two on the floor rolling round trying to suck as much breath as they could from the air around them. When they collected themselves the wolf sibling's expressions made them lose it again.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!, You three should see your faces!" Anna tried to say as she was laughing her side out.

"I… er… wha… THAT WASN'T FUNNY!" Saratoga tried to say.

"Oh… I doubt that, sweetheart!" Sam chuckled.

"... Just so you guys know, I had no part in this." Markis said with an amused look on his face.

"How did you guys know we were listening to you?" Bane asked.

"You guys _did_ see the vent near the ceiling, right?' Sam asked.

They all turned to the wall that separated the two rooms that was on the left of the front door to see a small vent which light was seeping through from the other side. The three siblings and Anna looked at it with a bit of surprise while Sam smiled slyly.

"Wow… Even _I_ didn't see that…" Said Anna.

"Welp… it pays to be attentive."

"... And you heard us through… that…" Saratoga asked.

"Yes."

She sighed.

"Well, at least now I know you're not just some supermammal."

He laughed.

" _Oh you have no idea!"_

"Well I think we all should get some rest. It's been a long day and we have an even longer weekend ahead of us. Come on you two, let's leave them be."

Markis then proceeded to grab the two by the ears and dragged them both off with heavy prontest from Saratoga and a lot of whining from Bane. The two left in the room had smiles on their faces so bright they could have lit up the dark side of the moon.

Sam sat down on the couch with a sigh and Anna joined him, laying her head on his lap as he took his hand and ran it through her long, blonde hair between her ears. Now that he thought about it… he could see how pretty she was. To him, she almost looked… human…

"What did you mean?"

"Huh?"

"About that thing you mentioned… About those two places… Poland and Germany?"

"Oh…"

He tried to think about how to go around this. At this point he didn't want to lose what he had just found by telling her the truth. So he went with the story that he had been brewing for this exact situation. Well not _this_ exact situation but a situation similar to this.

"Well… I'm from up north… _way_ north. Up there are a few large villages that usually coexist with each other, but one day a settlement called "Germany" went crazy and started taking land by force. They started out by taking back land that used to belong to them that they had to give up because of a past conflict that happened only twenty some years ago. Then they got greedy and started to Take land from other neighboring villages. The first he took that wasn't his wascalled "Poland". They, along with another group of p-... _mammals_ … called Russia took the land by storm."

"What about the villages that you said used to belong to Germany?"

"They welcomed the Germans with open arms."

"What about Poland?"

"Them?... Not so much… There's this story that has been repeated by just about everyone that talks about the start of the war about a troop of Poland calvary sent to stop the Germans from raging through the country. THe story takes place in the small town of Korjanty. They sent around two hundred and fifty soldiers to delay the advance of the German armor division during the first few weeks of the invasion… honestly from there history kinda blurs. They say the soldiers were slaughtered by the German armor but the actual story is a bit less dramatic than that. Some will tell you that the two hundred and fifty charged at the armor like they were suicidal but in reality what happened was that they came upon a small German infantry division and took them by surprise. It ended up being a victory for the Polish while they hit them hard and scattered the infantry and only lost eleven of their own mammals as well as leaving them with nine the myth started was when after the battle a German armored car squad found them in the open like the Polish found the Germans in the open and cut them down. Though it _was_ a lost battle the Polish actually achieved the goal of halting the Germans… at least for a little while."

"So, wait… mammals… _died_?"

Sam sighed.

"Yep… A lot of mammals died… and are still dying now, I would think… This war has been raging for… six years now… I think."

She sat up slowly.

"That's horrible! Why!? Why would you fight like that!?"

"Well… it's probably got something to do with shame. After the first war happened the German people were thrown into chaos. The last war left them with almost nothing and they called for vengeance. Or at least some of them did. And the ones that did got someone into power. His name is Adolf Hitler. He's the uncontested leader of Germany right now."

She looked away slowly and stared at the wall for a minute.

"What about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"What did you think of this… _war_?"

He figured it was now or never and he should probably come clean with this.

"... I fought in it… yes…I was on Poland's side. I fought under my country's flag, The United States of America."

"... When?"

"Well… about four years ago. I joined as a field medic… My job was to help the wounded and get them to safety while my friends fought."

"Did you ever have to kill someone?"

"Well not officially but there were a couple where i had to defend myself. To be honest though the enemy was never aloud to shoot at me but it happened sometimes…"

"Shoot? Like as in a tranquilizer?"

"That's a discussion for a whole other day… I'll tell you some other time what we used to fight but I think you know enough to get the jist of everything."

"Well… okay… but Sam?"

They turned to each other.

"If it helps… I don't blame you… If you had to fight to stay alive i can understand that…"

"... Thanks…"

* * *

 **Oh my God I'm** _ **SO**_ **glad I'm done with this! HA HA! This has been on my mind for God knows how long and I'm finally DONE with this chapter! With moving out of my parent's house along with trying to find a job so I can pay rent along with writer's block and general laziness I am pleased to bring to you, dear reader, the ninth chapter of Name to Forget, Face to Remember! I'll be working on it more, don't worry, but for now I'm gonna call it a day. I have two places I need to be today after I hand this over to Red who'll take it from here. Until next time everyone! Vi!**


	11. Chapter X: The Loyalty of a Wolf

_**Chapter X: The Loyalty of a Wolf**_

" _Stand up for what is Right, regardless of who is committing the wrong"_

 _ **Suzy Kassem**_

* * *

The morning brought the sun up which threw golden rays right into Sam's eyes. He groaned as he turned in his bed and was met with the sleeping face of the woman he had spent the night with. He smiled warmly as he stared at her… he couldn't help but notice how her golden locks swept between her ears and covered one of her eyes.

He felt like petting her but once his hand was outstretched and hovering over her head he thought about it again and just decided to let her rest. Last night marked the first time he ever actually slept with a woman other than his mother. Though nothing actually _happened_ in the way that sleeping with a girl would make you think… it was still nice to find someone sleeping next to him this morning. Besides, Sam wasn't that kind of guy.

" _Wonder if she slept better than I did?"_

Sam's night had been filled with more nightmares, as usual. But they were just the standard kind, to his thanks. Just the usual shell shocked dreams of a format soldier who has seen some fucked up shit he would rather forget. He pulled the covers back and sat up gently as to not disturb his bed-mate and walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, shirtless. He spied the water faucet and grabbed a cup, proceeding to fill it with water to satiate the feeling of a dry throat. He stood there taking small sips of the cooling liquid and thought about where they were…

" _Zootopia…"_ He mussed. " _Wonder what Sara has in store for us today? Probably some more schemes to get me and Anna together."_

He chuckled a little over the thought. Then his ears perked up as he heard the bedsheets in the bedroom being messed with.

" _Anna must have woken up…"_ He thought as he took small sips of his water.

A couple minutes later he watched as Anna walked out in nothing but her tank top and panties…

" _Maybe I should take this?"_ He thought as his eyes burned holes in the scantily clad doe that was rubbing sleep out of her eyes and heading for the bathroom.

He heard the doorknob click and the shower start running. He chuckled to himself at the perverted thoughts that had just passed through his mind, though forgot them just as quickly. Sam heard a knock and sighed as he walked over to open it. Outside was Bane.

"Can I come in?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah… come on in."

Sam stood aside as Bane walked past him and sat on the couch with a sigh of content.

"Saratoga wanted to let you know that we're going out here in a minute. She emphasized on how joining her was mandatory."

Sam laughed as he sat down with him on the couch.

"So what did you guys do last night?" Bane asked with a glint of curiosity in his eyes.

"None of your business, kid." Sam said back with an amused tone as he rubbed the head of the wolf that was seated down next to him.

"Aw come on! You guys didn't do anything?" Bane asked again as his eyes wandered towards Sam's chest… still without a shirt.

"Well, I mean, we watched some TV and went to bed."

"Uh huh…"

"And we went to sleep!" Sam laughed.

Bane looked as if he was disappointed and his eyes found the floor in dejection.

"Oh quit it, kid. I'm not that kind of lonely."

"Ah whatever… so do you plan on going out with only a pair of jeans or what?"

Sam looked down in confusion and noticed he didn't have a shirt on again.

"Oh, come on… do I have to wear one? They're so uncomfortable!" Sam wined.

"Uh, yes… if you wanna look at least a little respectable."

Sam sighed as he stood up and walked to the bedroom to grab the shirt he had discarded last night in order to sleep a little better. He put it on quickly and walked out.

"Better?"

"It's inside out…"

Sam groaned loudly and took it back off to fix the problem. As he was putting it back on the bathroom door opened and Anna walked back out wearing a towel over herself. She noticed both wolves looking at her and blushed a little.

"Oh, uh… hi guys… I'll, uh… I'll go get dressed…"

She quickly made her way into the bedroom and locked the door behind her leaving a blushing Bane and Sam chuckling at both of their reactions to the situation.

"I'll never understand women…" Sam said with amusement shining on his face.

"Um… right, well… I'll just go get ready I guess… we plan on heading out in, like, twenty minutes…"

"Alright, sure thing."

Bane got up and walked out, still blushing.

" _Scratch that, I'll never understand these_ _ **people**_ " Sam thought and laughed.

* * *

"You guys aren't seriously wearing the same clothes you wore yesterday, are you!?"

The five if them were standing outside of the hotel and Saratoga was awestruck at the fact that Sam and Anna were wearing the clothes that they were wearing when they got there.

"In my defense you never said we were spending the night in the city…" Sam shrugged.

"Same, I didn't pack anything anyway." Anna said with her arms crossed.

Sara sighed and started to think.

"Alright, so first we get some breakfast then we go shopping!" She beamed.

"Um… I'm not the kind of guy who goes after 'fashion'..." Sam said with a bit of hesitation.

He knew what was coming and braced himself for the mortars that we're sure to come.

"You need more clothes, Sam! I've seen what you have and it's unbearable! Such a handso- I MEAN… Someone like you needs some good looking clothes, no 'buts' about it!"

"What's wrong with my clothes!" Sam wined.

"Sam… you're not gonna win this…" Markis sighed.

"That's right! Now let's go eat and then we'll go fix this mess before someone important sees you! Oh gosh…"

Sara looked Sam over and sighed

"This is gonna be harder than I thought…"

"What's gonna be harder than you thought?" Anna asked, amused.

"Huh? Oh, nothing!"

Sara started walking down the street and turned to se no one following her.

"Well? You guys wanna have fun today or what!?" She yelled from a block away.

"If her fun involves cloths shopping I don't know if I do…" Sam sighed.

"Yeah… that's Sara for you…" Markis shared Sam's expression. "Sometimes I seriously worry about her…"

"No wonder." Added Anna.

"It's best not to keep her waiting, guys." Bane said to the three of them. "We won't hear the end of it if we do."

With that he ran off towards his sister… leaving the last three of them shaking their heads. Sam shrugged and walked towards the two that were waiting for them, followed by the others that were in front of the hotel. They started to make their trek into the city which had started to wake.

* * *

The city was huge. It looked big to Sam before but walking through the streets made him notice just how big in scale it actually was. He walked with the other four, Anna looking none the more amused and the three Mune siblings talking about this and that.

The pack found their way to a café and they all walked in. The place had a homey feel to it with the windows on the front and sides looking out onto the streets that we're now congested. There were tables scattered all over the room and the place was lit with lights that hung down from the ceiling by long, thin polls. They were greeted by another doe and she smiled kindly.

"Hello! Seats for five?"

"Yes ma'am." Markis replied. "And good morning to you too!"

The server girl giggled and picked up some menus. She led the pack to a circular table in the back of the restaurant, with cushioned benches surrounding it. They all filed in and sat down where they wanted while their server handed out all the menus.

"So can I start you all of with anything to drink?"

"Yeah can I take some coffee?" Anna asked.

"I'll do for some soda…" Markis said with Bane nodding to show that was what he wanted as well.

"I'll have an iced sweet tea." Saratoga said.

"Um… hmm… I think I'll take some milk…"

The server turned to him

"All we have is almond milk… is that fine?"

"Um…"

Sam had never even heard of almond milk so just decided to go with it.

"Yeah I'll take that…"

The server nodded and told them that she would be right back with their drinks. The others started to have a conversation about where they were going to go for the day.

"How come they don't have regular milk?" Sam wondered out loud.

"Uh, that _is_ regular milk, Sam…" Bane said.

"No it's n-" Sam caught himself. " _... Oh of course they wouldn't have 'milk' here… fuck… I'm so stupid…"_

"What are you talking about?" Saratoga asked while chuckling.

"I don't know how you can even stand that crap…" Anna said amused. "It tastes like the wrong end of an elephant's ear…"

"And you would know this 'how'?" Sam asked with an amused smile.

Anna laughed and elbowed him weakly and they all burst out laughing. Just then their server came back with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order anything. Markis asked what they had on special and the server informed them that the pancakes we're half off today so they all decided to order them. She wrote something down on her notebook and nodded as she thanked them. The server told them that they would be served shortly and walked off.

"So what's the plan today?" Sam asked.

"Well, once we finish here we're going back for the car and going clothes shopping. Then we're gonna drive around and show you guys everything, then go back to the academy once it starts to get late." Sara informed him.

"Hey now I don't remember agreeing to that." Anna told Sara who brushed her off.

"But you guys need to at least have _one_ good looking pair of clothes!" She stated.

"Yeah? The problem is that I don't have any money for clothes…" Sam informed the she-wolf.

"Oh come on now! If money is a problem for you guys then I'll buy them for you!"

"Wouldn't your father get mad at you for all this?" Sam asked.

"Oh, he won't care! Pleeeeeeeeeas?"

Sam looked at Anna who had an expression which said "Help me" and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine… if it'll make you happy."

Saratoga's face beamed with excitement as she clapped her hands together sharply.

"Sorry, guys… she has a mind of her own sometimes." Markis stated, dejectedly.

Anna shook her head. "No, really. It's fine… come to think of it I _would_ like something cool to wear."

"I never really cared much for clothes… other than the fact that they keep me covered. But I really don't get fashion."

"Why not?" Sara asked as she tilted her head.

"Well… I could never really understand how or why someone would blow so much money just to look better than everyone around them… I grew up homeless, so I never imagined spending more money on anything that wasn't absolutely necessary."

"You grew up homeless?" Anna asked as she looked over to him. Her voice was laced with a bit of both curiosity and empathy.

"... Yeah… I'll tell you guys about it another time, though. Let's keep today happy."

"I agree," Markis stated. "I don't want to hear a sob story."

Anna laughed at that and Sam smiled. For a long time he had worn his past on his sleeve and he was somewhat aware that most people wouldn't really care what he's been through, but to him (most of the time) he couldn't come up with anything else to talk about. That was his life story. All of his struggles, his problems, his life experience in general came from the times where he would be spending the night in a homeless shelter or eating dinner in a soup kitchen. He had nothing else to share, really. Though he had high hopes he could have a much simpler life, free of the struggles of his old one here, in Andora. After all, it's why he's here in the first place.

"Alright!" Sam said with a clap. "So, we go clothes shopping and then we head back into the station for today?"

"That's the plan." Markis said with a sigh.

"Well I'm ready to get going, how about you guys?" Said Anna.

* * *

"Eh… no… it doesn't match your eyes like I thought it would." Sara said to Anna with a shake of her head.

"What!? But this looks good on me!" Anna retorted with a bit of a forced childish whine.

"I mean, yeah it looks _good_ on you, but it doesn't look **amazing**! you get it?"

Anna sighed.

"Alright… how many more do you have for me?"

"Just one more, here."

Sara passed Anna a deep, rich, blue dress that was about knee length to Anna which sparkled a little in the light of the high end clothes store there occupied. The boys had gone to help Sam pick out clothes for him so it was just the two girls in the back at the changing station for now.

"Oh… I actually like that one…" She said as she held it to the light.

"I knew you would! Now go try it on!"

The doe stepped into the changing room and took off the ankle length, orange dress that she had on and looked herself over in the mirror.

Her body was slim. Thanks to all the work she had been putting in at the gym in the training facility the past few months but she thought she was far from perfect just yet. Her golden fur had a slight shine to it from the conditioner she had been using and her locks of fur on the top of her head were brushed back behind her ears today without any further care to it.

She had always been kinda self conscious about her head fur, growing up as a kid. It was a _very_ rare condition that no one could really explain. She had gotten some smack for it too, growing up. Mammals would call her "weird" and "a freak" when she would go to school.

Almost every other day she would ask her father to cut it or would ask, nearly beg, if she could just do it herself and the answer was always the same. Her father liked the look. He would always say it reminded him of how females would look back where he was from, even though he never would tell her where that was. Even on his deathbed it was a secret he kept to the grave. She always wanted to know, though, and it upset her _so_ much when even as he took his final breath as she asked for an answer he winked at her and told her…

" _You'll find out someday… I'm not the only of my kind…"_

The bullying only stopped because of the singer, Gazelle, who would hold herself up on stage with nothing but confidence whenever she performed. She was the soul reason why no mammal is bullied today with the same condition as the two of them.

She sighed and put the dress on. It was tight fitting but it showed her curves _very_ well…

" _The males will probably be throwing themselves at me…"_

She thought about that for a minute… did she want that? The only male she's ever had even a little bit of a connection with was… and even then she's only known him for a month and _even then_ … the only time she's been with him for more than five minutes of conversation was last night…

" _But last night…"_ She thought as she started to blush a little.

She shook her head.

" _I just shared a bed with him… nothing more. And last night we were just joking!... Right?... What does he think about me? Should I try him? Eh… oh God I asked if he would go out with me last night._ _ **I asked him out last night!**_ _Oh d- no! I'm gonna take this cool!"_

At this point her face was as red as a tomato, or more like tomato sauce. She put her muzzle in her paw and shook her head violently to get rid of these thoughts. She was shaken from all these embarrassing thoughts by a knock on the door to the dressing room she was occupied in.

"Anna? Is everything okay in there?" Saratoga asked through the door.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine!"

" _Actually nothing is fine right now!"_ He panicked mind thought, but she stuffed the sudden burst of anxiety down and calmed herself.

She opened up the door sporting the dress and Sara was taken aback by the sight of her.

"Oh… girl! That dress is _**so**_ you!"

"... Is it?"

"Anna, you look like a knockout in that!"

She brushed her dress down and looked herself over in the mirror on the open door again. She had to admit her green eyes seemed more bright in it… and it was comfortable too, even though it clung a little too much for her own comfort.

"It's a little tight…" Anna admitted.

"It's supposed to be! Oh my goodness it looks _so_ hot on you! Oh Sam will love it!"

Anna let out a tiny whimper at the thought of that. She was never really good with males and had no idea what to do at this point…

"What's wrong!"

Anna looked down at the floor, dejectedly.

"... I need some help with that, to be honest."

Sara looked her up and down and pondered for a little while.

"Why's that?... Oh please don't tell me you've never tried your luck!"

"Never have, and I was beginning to think I never would…"

Sara looked like she was in total shock.

"Anna… if I had your looks I would already have a mate by now!" The she-wolf nearly shouted.

" _Keep your voice down!_ And, well, it's just complicated! I never really found anyone attractive!"

"Expect for Sam?" Sara asked with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow.

Anna sighed.

"Yeah… I don't know what to do… I… I asked if he would be interested in me last night…"

"You… was this _after_ that prank you pulled on us last night?"

The doe giggled a little at that notion.

"Yep… we were watching TV and I asked him if he was into cross species…"

"Um… well that's a bit fast… but what did he say?"

"He said he didn't see a problem with it… we, um, kinda told each other we would try it out… in a way, I think."

"That's good! That means he probably feels the same way you do! What else happened!?"

"Nothing… we watched TV and went to bed… I don't know why this is bothering me _now_ of all times but… I don't know."

* * *

"These are pretty comfortable…"

Sam was standing in front of a mirror with a new pair of dark, expensive looking jeans that had a whole bunch of pockets around the legs. The denim was soft to the touch and the fur on his legs was freed up by the sort of baggy nature of the jeans. Markis sat on the bench next to him taking off his shirt to try on a long sleeved black shirt.

"I bet… I saw the tag on those things, apparently they were made specifically for wolves."

"Wait so there's clothes that are made for specific mammals?" Sam wondered.

"Well, yeah. It's probably why you are complaining about your shirts constantly… either that or you just wanna be one of those naturalists."

"... I get the feeling I don't wanna ask what those people are like…"

"You don't." Markis chuckled.

Sam sighed and took the jeans back off and put his old ones back on. He looked at the small pile that Bane had put together for him and picked up the folded clothes. He walked out of the dressing room with Markis following him, adjusting his belt.

"So what's with you and Anna anyway?" Markis asked as they looked for Bane through the aisles.

"Hm?"

"Oh don't deny it. She's cute and you know it."

"Well… yeah she's cute… I don't know, man."

"What on Andora is 'man'?"

" _Seriously?"_

"It's nothing. And to answer your question… yeah I might just try it with her." Sam informed his partner, chuckling as he did so.

"Well if you think it's too much for you, just give me her number when you're done!" Markis laughed.

Sam joined in on Markis's laughter. He thought about where exactly he was and the thought amused him. Here he was shopping for expensive clothing as a wolf who's thinking about getting into a relationship with a deer.

"This whole thing is crazy!" Sam laughed.

"I bet it is…"

"Oh you have no idea."

"I'm sure I don't!"

They continued to chuckle to themselves as they walked down a rack of shirts until they spotted Bane looking through them.

"Oh, you two done with looking?" Bane asked them as they came up on them.

"Yeah, what about you?" Markis asked.

"Yep. I found some pretty cool shirts that I tried on. I gotta worry about budget though…"

"Knowing Sara I would say that's probably smart!" Sam laughed as Markis joined in on the joke.

"Yeah… she can go overboard _real_ quick." Bane added.

"So what now?" Sam asked.

"We wait for Sara and Anna to finish and we head back to the base for this evening's briefing."

"Is that it?" Bane asked.

"Yeah… I heard they're gonna start training us on the tranq guns soon and they all want us informed."

"Oh, that's interesting…" Sam stated.

"I don't know if I would be comfortable… shooting someone…" Bane said with a bit of hesitation.

"Well you probably wouldn't have to." Markis began. I mean you would probably only have to point it at them and they would think twice before trying anything."

"But just in case… I think it would be a good idea to get accurate with 'em… I don't want you shooting me in the back by accident!" Sam joked.

Bane whimpered and Markis chuckled at that. Sam fist bumped Bane in the shoulder and walked away towards the female's department and the two followed him.

* * *

The five of them were walking back to the hotel to retrieve all there stuff and they were all laughing (save for Saratoga) about the prank that Sam and Anna had pulled on the three of them on the way there. They turned a corner and could see the hotel on the left.

"Welp… this was fun." Sam stated.

"It would be more fun if you guys could stop making fun of me!" Sara whined.

"Maybe you should learn to leave others alone unless they ask." Markis added.

The she-wolf whined and buried her face in her paws in shame as the others chuckled… except for Sam. He was currently watching something in the distance, past the hotel. A gang of what looked like a hodgepodge of species were gathered around two figures in the middle. The two in question we're ridiculously smaller than the gang and looked as though they were scared of the five that surrounded them.

"Hey… you see that?" Sam asked everyone.

"See what?" Bane asked as Anna squinted her eyes at what Sam was seeing.

"Is that… what I think it is?" Anna asked with a quiet tone.

"Should we go see what's going on?" Sara asked.

"Let's… We're training for this so why not? Might be some good practice." Markis added.

The five of them made their way towards the group and heard what was going on before they could see anything.

"How about you just **give him the money you stole, pred trash!** " A rhino shouted at the two victims.

"We haven't stolen anything from you guys! Let us go!" Said one of the figures in the middle, a male by the sound of it.

"Than why am I missing my cash!? You were the only ones around here and we _alllll_ know what _**foxes**_ do to earn anything!" One of the five, a buck deer, spit at the two.

"We're innocent! Please, we don't have any money on us! Let us go! The other one in the middle of the circle, feminine and on the verge of tears it sounded like, pleaded.

"You guys mind telling me what's going on here?" Sam more or less demanded with a hint of edge to his tone.

"Mind you guy's business!" The male lion of the bigger group spat at them.

"I believe this _is_ our business… We're-" Saratoga started to say before Anna elbowed her to get her to stop before she said a little too much than was worth.

"Nevermind what our business is… So I would start explaining if I were you guys." The soldier stated.

"Well how about if you cared you call the cops to lock up these good for nothing thieves!" The rhino said.

"You better watch that tone of yours, _**bastard**_ … cause I'm about to just kick you asses and be done with it." Sam informed the five…

The group was taken aback by the words of the wolf. They looked towards one another, then backed away slowly.

"You know what? How about we prove it! These two foxes pickpocketed me out of two hundred bucks! Just search them and then call your buddies! We don't have time for this!" The buck told them with his hands thrown up in the air as if he was done with all of this.

"You two." Markis pointed to the two foxes in the middle.

"We're innocent! We swear!" The male cried.

"We didn't steal anything! Please don't hurt us!" The female begged.

"Listen, you're innocent until proven guilty… so just quit your whining and come over here… you're safer with us…" Sam told them.

They looked at each other and nodded to themselves. They quickly walked over to their group. The male and female foxes looked very identical towards each other, "twins" was what Sam was thinking. They had dark red fur with cream colored tail tips and chins. They were dressed in near raggs and the female had an old backpack on her person. The brother was staying very close to his sister and the girl looked like she was about to just break down and cry. They stood before the five of them, trembling and Sam instantly had even more sympathy towards the two of them, the reek of fear radiated off of them and he almost immediately knew the five in front of them were full of shit.

"Alright…" Sam sighed as he got down on one knee to get to eye level with the two of them. "Just empty your pockets and you paw over your backpack."

They complied almost immediately with the girl throwing off her backpack and handing it to Sam while the boy frantically turned all of his pockets inside out which the girl followed suit. Sam opened up the backpack and rummaged through it looking for anything suspicious. Inside was a pair of extra clothes for the two of them and a few bottles of prescription drugs which Sam didn't recognize, but there wasn't even a penny in any of the pockets of the pack nor was there anything in their pockets other than their citizen cards.

"Welp… I guess they're innocent." Sam said with a sigh.

"That's impossible! They're FOXES!" The fourth one, a weasel screamed.

"Well they don't even have a cent on them, buddy." Markis stated. Sam could sense he was getting sick of this bullshit as well.

"You're a bunch of liars!" The weasel stated.

"You wanna say that again, _**friend**_?" Sam growled.

"They probably hid the money somewhere else on them!" The lion said with an evil glint in his eyes. "If we just take 'em and strip 'em down we'll find it for sure!"

The two foxes hugged each other, nearly pissing their pants in fear. At that point Sam has had enough.

"Anna… keep these two safe with you… Markis… I might need some help with big ugly there… but the rest are **mine** …" Sam said with such calmness it disturbed everyone gathered stared at him with fear, except Markis. The wolf next to Sam was feeling nearly the same as Sam.

"Noted…" Markis stated.

The fox siblings found there way behind Anna who kneeled down to comfort them while Bane and Saratoga backed away together. The two wolves walked as calmly towards the gathering as possible, as if they were just going to have a chat with the group. Though everyone knew exactly what was going to happen next.

"You wouldn't dare! You're gonna be police, right! You wouldn't hurt us!..." The fifth one, another wolf said.

The entire block was reeking of fear and Sam was enjoying every last fucking bit of it. He looked over to Markis and he could tell he was feeling the same. He looked back at the five gathered in front of them.

"You wanna bet, you mother fuckers?" Sam asked.

At that point the both of them lunged. Sam headed straight for the big, horned one while Markis aimed at the lion. Sam lost track of Markis as soon as the ball was opened, his attention was focused solely on the rhino. He jumped up and threw a left hook with all his weight behind it aimed at his enemy's jaw.

The blow found its mark perfectly. A sickening crack echoed throughout his entire body and the rhino hit the wall behind him with a thud. The rhino yelled out in agony as Sam landed on all fours, standing up quickly to look to his right. He dodged a hook just in time as he felt the air being disturbed to his right. The wolf that threw the punch stumbled away and Sam found his chance.

The trained fighter got behind his opponent and put the pour wolf in a choke hold. He waited a little until the struggling lupine went limp from lack of air and Sam let him hit the cold concrete of the sidewalk with a thud. Sam looked over to see Markis having not such a good time with the buck and lion… he was currently in a choke hold himself with the buck while the lion repeatedly socked him in the stomach. Sam chuckled a little to see his friend a little out of his league but a thought occurred to the warrior…

" _Where the hell is the other little bastard?"_

Sam felt a sharp thud on the back of his head and he hit the floor with a howl of pain. He looked behind him to the the blow came from to find the weasel with a metal pipe raised over his head with the intention of bringing it down on Sam's head.

" _ **Oh, not this time!"**_

Sam gathered himself in a split second and balanced himself on his left arm, holding himself as he brought his right foot up, sharply nailing the would be assailant in the face. The poor guy flew back a good five feet and landed on his back. He didn't get up.

Sam turned his attention to the two that were about to beat Markis down and he lunged at them with a roar. By the time they realized they now stood alone it was too late.

The fight was over in less than seven minutes. Sam stood over Markis who was kneeled over on his knees, spitting out a little blood from the blows he took and Sam was rubbing his back.

"Gotta learn to follow orders, dude." Sam chuckled and it brought a chuckle from Markis as well.

"I was never really good at that…" Markis sighed.

"You… you guys okay?..." Sara asked as the rest of them approached the two carefully.

"You need an ambulance?" Anna asked hesitantly.

"Na… he got cut up pretty good but it's not internal… he bit his tongue pretty bad but he'll live." Sam said with a sigh.

"What about them?" Bane asked.

Sam and Markis looked back at the five animals that laid unconscious on the sidewalk in different positions. The rhino had ended up being the last of the combatants and the most difficult to take down but he managed it with just a small kick to the side.

The buck and weasel began to groan and Sam stood up. He grabbed the weasel by the scruff of his neck and brought him over to the buck. He threw him down next to the deer with a jump from the antlered animal who looked at his former partner with shock and turned to the five which were gathered in front of them.

"Check his pockets." Sam told him.

"Why?" He growled back.

"Because you'll find your missing money if you do."

A look of confusion flashed across his face before realisation hit him. He looked over to his friend who was withering in pain beside him and reached out for what was particularly hanging out of his right pocket. He held up a wad of what looked like two hundred bucks.

"What… bu-... But why?..." He stuttered in utter disbelief.

"Seems you need to make better friends, pal." Sam stated, coldly.

"I… _*cough*_ I'm sorry…" Was all the snake that laid before them all could mutter.

"He… he told us that those foxes must have stole it… I…"

Sam sighed. He got ready to say something but something caught his attention. His ears perked up and he turned to see the two foxes a few feet away, the male holding something out to the female who looked like she was having a panic attack.

"Come on… you need your meds!" He told her as she took the little white pills from him and downed them quickly with shaking paws. Sam ran over to the two.

"Is she okay?" He asked.

"She has anxiety attacks…" Was all that he got.

Sam shook his head in disbelief. He just couldn't wrap his mind around how cruel these _animals_ were… or more or less that _**snake**_ that he had nailed in the mouth with his foot.

" _Oh I hope I broke his jaw…"_

"Do you need anything?" Sam asked as he kneeled down to the two.

"No… we'll be fine… thank you…" The kid told him without looking Sam in the eye.

Anna stood by shaking her head. Here she was… again in this messed up city which she wanted nothing to do with and again witnessing the cruelty with which foxes were prosecuted here… she felt like she was going to be sick, not to mention the viciousness in which Sam attacked those five.

" _He took them all out single handedly… Who is this guy?!"_ She wondered to herself.

She watched as he stood up with a sigh and turned to the five who were all coming to consciousness.

"You all better just go home before I change my mind and just bury you right here and now… you're all lucky you caught me in a good mood…" He said with such an edge to his voice it sent shivers down her spine.

The four (minus the weasel) all looked at each other and silently agreed to just let this whole thing go and got up. They walked off, wounded and dejected towards the inner city slowly. Most of them hung onto their arms or limped on one of their legs as they hobbled home, leaving a sobbing weasel behind.

The Munes helped Markis up and walked him over to the four others.

"What now?" Bane asked…

"You two sure you don't need help?" Sam asked the foxes again.

"We're fine… honestly." The male said as he helped his sister up. She looked a little better and she had stopped hyperventilating.

"Alright… just be careful from now on… promise?" Sam asked.

"Yes… thank you so much…" The girl thanked the five of them.

"It was our pleasure!" Markis laughed through gritted teeth.

Sam chuckled a little and shoulder bumped the boy.

"Next time just run… okay?"

"Yes sir…" The young firetail said to the soldier that stood in front of him.

The two turned away and walked slowly off towards the inner part of the city, following the gang that had cornered them.

"You think they'll be alright?" Sara asked, worried.

"They're gonna be fine… I'm sure of it…" Sam stated matter-of-factly.

Though Anna wasn't paying attention. All her thoughts were focused on the wolf she had spent the night with before…

" _Who is this guy… what's he hiding?.."_

* * *

 **Welp… with trying to hold up two jobs and dealing with a minor medical condition I seem to find that this little quote fits me quite well…**

" _The rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated."_

 **LMAO!**

 **Anyway long story short I literally haven't had the time to write in a month. And before that I was dealing with what I wanted to do with this chapter. Though I think this will be an acceptable chapter with acceptable content. And what do we have here? A love interest in the making?**

" **I do say Mr. Kamikazi you are either a genius or a madman!"**

 **Well you're right on both subjects, dear reader! I'm both a genius and as mad as a hatter! XD**

 **Ah… with all joking aside I'm glad I was able to get this out when I could… and it quite surprised me when I checked up on this story and the one year anniversary passed quite some time ago! It left my jaw hanging (literally) and asking myself "Where the hell has this year taken me?!"**

 **It's a good question with a good story behind it itself and I honestly want to thank you all for the support of this story. I wish I could find more time to write and I can say this, unless I die shortly this story shall continue, even if it kills me I** _ **will**_ **keep updating… even though I can't promise regular updates I'll be working on it as much as my time allows me…**

 **Well I think that's all i had to say here… I'll see you all in the next chapter!**

 _*This is Fox signing off:*_

 **Vi!**


	12. Chapter XI: A Savage City

**Chapter XI: A "Savage" City**

" _Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."_

 _John F. Kennedy - 1962_

The feeling of sedation set over him like a thick blanket. He could barely conjure a single thought, let alone move his limbs which lay heavily to his sides. He was in a state of deep sleep but to his surprise he actually enjoyed it. For he knew that she lay there with him as his mind wandered from this dream to that in a state of bliss…

… Then her alarm went off…

He felt her stir and reach for her phone as he was awoken from his quiet sleep by the incident, infernal beeping of that damned phone.

" _Why did she pick that alarm… of all the ones that thing must have on there that one has got to be the most_ _ **annoying**_ _on in the list…"_

He always hated to wake up to an alarm. On a good day without work he would just sleep in till one or two in the afternoon and wouldn't even imagine getting out of bed for anything other that to be beckoned to nature's calling, well that and a nice glass of water. This particular alarm also reminded him of the one he had as a pup, the one his mother gave him to wake up in time to get ready for school and make the bus. He always _hated_ school.

"Alright, come on, Nick… We gotta get up!"

Nicholas Piberius Tiberius Wilde, a fox in both senses of the term, groaned in protest and mock agony from being awoken from his precious slumber. He opened his eyes to see the eyes of his rabbit partner, that of the esteemed Judith Lavender Hopps, staring down at her with a look of semi urgency.

"Com'on Carrots! We're safe for today! No need to rush!"

"Nick I want to take a closer look at the town! I want to see if we can't find anyone that can help us make sense of this!"

"We're not gonna find anyone else who'll speak English. We're lucky we found Jack…"

To that statement a knock on the door to there room came and Judy's ears shot up in surprise.

"You two need to keep quiet! You don't know who could be listening!" A heavily accented voice came through the wooden door to the tiny bedroom the cop duo occupied.

"Since you're both up you should get ready to go. You don't know how much trouble I could get in if they knew I was hiding you two..."

Nick groaned more and Judy's ears slacked out of empathy. He had wished they never took this assignment. He wished they were still back in Zootopia, the city they both knew so well. He even wished he was back at the station listening to Clawhowser ramble on about Gazzel constantly while Buffalo Butt was yelling at him to get to work. Hell, he would even enjoy parking duty over this load of-

"Nick we should get out of here… We shouldn't put Mr. Savage through more trouble then we already have…"

"Yeah… I know…"

Nick sighed as he got up out of the rickety bed and put his paws down on the rickety floorboards of the two story shop/house they had found themselves in. He cursed whoever it was who thought it was a good idea to send _them_ of all mammals to this near suicide mission.

The story of their predicament is a rather short one actually… It started with a single yellow folder containing the information to one of the biggest conspiracies Zootopia had ever known, and the only reason why _they_ were picked to investigate out of every other mammal that was _far_ more qualified then they to take on this mission was because they were closer to the original case that was actually just a runoff of a bigger issue. The nighthowler case still left Nick with a bad taste in his mouth…

As is should have. It nearly cost, not only him but the entire predator population of Zootopia, their freedom to call themselves citizens of their own city. Though in the end it would have probably cost him even more in the long run.

It was a crappy city, that much he knew, but he couldn't just sit back and watch his hometown be destroyed… the place held a lot of memories. Most of those memories weren't so good but the good ones, to him, made up for the many bad ones. The times his mother, Marion, would hug him and tell him everything would be alright in the days that passed after his father's passing. The times where he would play with his only two friends in the world for hours on end, skipping school, doing shady business, graffiting up every square inch of the street and adjoining neighborhoods, and basically being a nuisance to the community in every way they could.

And at the moment his home was currently under the threat of destruction by this "Third Reich"... He didn't know what to make of them or this new place in general. Mammals around here we're drastically different than the ones in Zootopia.

One thing that was different was that mammals didn't tend to discriminate on the basis of species… quite opposites was true it seemed. This, for Nick, was actually pretty cool. Not _once_ has he been called out for being a fox and he was enjoying it… as much as he could, in any rate. Another thing that was different was that there was a higher pred population than in Zootopia. This fact came as a shock to Nick and Judy both.

But the third thing that was different on the surface of this place was probably the most drastic and strange… they believed that they weren't actually mammals. The mammals of New Germany seemed to believe that most of them were from another world, one of which no mammal was sentient. Instead of all the mammal species that they both knew of, the dominant race of creatures on this "Home World" was a single race of mammals that were called "Humans". From description and various status around the small town they were in it seemed like they were mostly hairless (save for a thick patch on top of the head) and had a long, thin build with extended arms and legs. Instead of "paws" they had "hands" with five fingers on each instead of the usual three or four.

It was strange indeed but after hearing most of the locals talk about their former lives in this world and how they died the evidence from supposed "witnesses" was hard to refute. Just because of how similar and yet very the different stories they've heard. Nick, at first believed that it was all a hoax to get more tourist attraction but after a while he started to doubt himself. Judy, however stood by her original judgement that it was all probably either an elaborate prank or mass delusion. Though he could tell that she was having second thoughts about it as well at this point…

This posed a _big_ problem… not because everyone here was potentially mentally ill, but because the _way_ some of these "people" died were pretty violent… it was the first time either of them had heard the term "war"...

He groaned as he stood up and smoothed down the shirt he slept in… it was the only one he had at the moment because of a dispute at the first station that they had encountered when getting to this God forbidden place. The local law enforcement had checked every inch of them and their luggage and held onto it on the basis of "national security" which was a new term he had come to find the meaning of the hard way… though I the end they were allowed to pass but they still kept everything he brought, Judy' stuff didn't fare any better either.

"Come on Nick… I wanna go talk to Jack and see what we can find out about this…"

"Please, Carrots. I really don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to."

"He might have some information about all this!"

Nick pondered what happened last night again… there were protesters out among the streets last night during some kind of march. He couldn't understand one word they said but they seemed furious as to what was happening and also seemed unable to do anything about those mammals in the dark grey uniforms that marched up and down the streets for hours as they waved their "Swastika" flags.

From the little intel they could piece together the entirety of this country was in a state of civil upheaval. The powers that be in this place didn't seem to care what the population thought of these "soldiers" and were constantly trying to undermine them… In the short time that they have been there he had seen some pretty messed up stuff...

Judy opened the door to the bedroom and slowly walked out into the living room where their host sat on the sofa drinking a cup of tea. He acknowledged her with a nod as he took sips out of his drink. Nick followed closely behind but remained wary all the same. They both sat down on the adjacent sofa together, not saying a word as they looked at their "host" with a bit of worry as neither one of them trusted him just yet.

The grey rabbit that sat across from them scoffed as he continued to enjoy his drink.

"You both honestly act like I would kill you if I got the chance! I'm not just some cretin you know."

"Uh… I'm sorry mister Savage… but…" Judy tried to get out as the words stuck to the back of her throat.

"You don't trust me, that's good… I didn't expect it of you anyway… So I take it last night left you pretty shocked? Where are you from, if you don't mind the intrusion? You both have the accent of a Yank but don't seem to know what's going on around here…"

"W- We're from Zootopia." Judy blurted out.

"Ah, that would explain so much, honestly… So… Zootopia. I hear it's lovely this time of year." Savage said with a little chuckle.

Nick sat there in silence. He debated in his head weather he should just cut him off and get the answers he needed or let him give him what he wanted… Nick had no idea who's side this "Jack Savage" was on and honestly he didn't much care, but time was running out and he wanted to get this job done and get out of here.

"So… why did you two come to New Germany to begin with?" Jack asked with a dark tang to his question.

"We-"

"We're on our honeymoon!" Nick blurted out in order to stop Judy from giving away too much information.

Jack and Judy both stared at him with confusion in their eyes as Nick silently beat the crap out of himself for not being able to think of a better thing to say.

"Um… yeah… we're, uh, on our honeymoon…" Judy tried to follow along as Jack just stared at the two of them with confusion all over his face.

"Well… that's interesting… so… why new Germany, though? I could think of a million better places to go for honeymoon."

"We heard about what a lovely place it was to visit so we just had to come! Didn't we, sweetie?" Nick, now fully into character, asked Judy.

"Oh, uh, yes! See we heard a whole lot about it from our friends and they said it was perfect for a little vacation!"

"Well… like I said I could think of better holiday spots…" Jack said as he turned to look out the window to the right of him. The riots had started up again and it was getting loud.

"You two need to leave. You might be able to slip away before the Brownshirts find you."

"Brownshirts?" Nick asked, confused.

"They're like peacekeepers, they protect the streets from crime and the like but they also silence political enemies with use of force and they lock up foreigners."

"Why would they lock us up?" Judy asked, worried.

Jack shook his head.

"I don't really know… maybe they just don't want word spreading that Germany is losing the war…"

There was that word again… Nick could barely stop himself from snarling at the idea of war. Why would any one group get so mad at someone that entire countries would try to kill each other?

"Well on any case you need to leave. It's not safe here, especially for a newlywed couple like yourselves."

Nick looked over to see Judy blushing at the thought of the two of them being married, but to be honest Nick was also feeling a little red in the cheeks himself at the idea.

"Actually…" Judy started. "Would you know anything about _'Nighthowlers'_?"

" _I'm gonna kill her…"_ Nick thought to himself as he internally cringed.

"... _'Nighthowlers'_?... You mean the 'Midnight Blacks'?"

"They're these tiny purple flowers that have bulbs for roots…" Judy explained to Jack who had a genuine confused look on his face. The rabbit's expression put Nick at ease a little, but not by much.

"Yes you mean the 'Midnight Blacks'... Why would you want to know about a common weed?"

"Because there her favorites!" Nick blurted out again, trying to save their hides… _again_ …

Judy looked at him then to Jack and nodded her head with a fake smile.

"Yeah, I just love them! My dad would plant them in the fields to keep the bugs out of the garden and I would always go out and make flower crowns with them! They remind me of my childhood…" Judy continued the lie.

"Hmm… well they grow wild out in the woods between the nations in No Man's Land. Maybe you could gather some there… in fact, it would probably be best if you made your way towards there anyway… find a white flag zone so you can go home safely.

"What's a white flag zone?" Nick asked curiously.

"They are designated places where no man may be harmed… they're basically military sanctuaries where the wounded are brought to be treated… sometimes travelers find there way there and are sent back to their homes by train or caravans. I would recommend going to the west border of New Germany and finding the one near Gust Ridge… it's a small village where the border between New Germany and The King's Land lays."

"Okay…" Nick said as he thought. "So how do you get there?"

"You would have to travel with a company that is shipped there… maybe join up with the Red Cross and pretend you want to work for the camp. That would probably be your best bet," Jack said as he took another sip of his tea.

"Thank you mister Savage." Judy said. "I think we've held you up for long enough… we appreciate your help."

Jack waved her off.

"Don't worry, I'm always willing to help… now if I were you I would leave as soon as possible, before you get caught by the Brownshirts or SS…"

Nick stood up too leave and Judy followed suit. They both walked to the door while Jack waved from his couch to bid them farewell.

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Savage…"

Jack chuckled.

"Don't thank me until you've finished your honeymoon, Mr. Wilde!" Jack said with a wink.


End file.
